Agriculture for Engineers 4 (3+1)

Lesson 46. Garden Tools

46.2 KNIVES  

In general, in the nursery, two types of knives viz. budding and grafting knives are required for propagation work.  A grafting knife in general has a straight 7.5cm long blade and strong long handle. The budding knife on the other hand may have a straight or a bit curved blade of shorter length.  It has, however a spatula at the end of handle, which is used for lifting the bank during the budding operation. Sometimes a knife having two parallel blades (double blade knife) is also necessary. It is required for patch budding. However, very often a budding knife is used for grafting purpose also. These knives may have either a folding or fixed blade.  The blades of knives should be made from high carbon steel and should always be very sharp.

46.3 KUDALI

It is an important tool for budding of pits or digging of soil. Kudali has a metal blade attached to a wooden handle. It is operated manually and considered very important nursery tool.

46.4 GARDEN FORK

Garden fork is mainly used for breaking of soil clods during preparation of nursery beds of field.

46.5 WEEDING FORK

It loosens the soil and equally useful in weeding. It consists of a long handle with a blade having teeth. It is drawn manually with the help of handle to collect the weeds and cops of plants etc.

46.6 KHURPI

Khurpi is widely used for various cultural operations in the nursery but mainly for removal of weeds and loosening of soil for preparation aeration. It has a sharp edge triangular blade fitted with a wooden handle.

46.7 CROW BAR

It is an iron rod with one end pointed and other as wedge shaped. Crow bar is mainly used for digging of pits.

46.8 WATER CANS

Watering cans are used for irrigation for irrigation of annual flowers, vegetables and newly transplanted seedlings of various flowering annuals and vegetables or young plants in pots. These are made up of galvanized iron sheet and sometimes these are also made up to plastic. These cans are fitted with a rose over the nozzle, which is very useful for equal distribution of water over the germinating seedings.

46.9 GARDEN RAKES

Garden rakes are used for collecting stones and bricks bits from the bed, scarifying the glass surface and gathering the fallen leaves. A toothed rake is always better for such operations.

46.10 SECATEURS

Secateurs is considered as the most important tool for a propagator or a nurseryman. Secateur is used for excising soons, lapping off the rootstock, removing the undesirable sprouts/ shoots from the stock, preparation of the scion sticks and for pruning operation.  The blade of the secateurs should be of a good quality because poor quality blades may not give smooth cuts to the stocks and scion.

46.11 GRAFTING MACHINES

Many machines have been developed and commercially used for the preparation of scion sticks and bud wood for budding and grafting operations in many developed countries of the world. These machines are however, not very common in India. Grafting and budding knives are used for grafting purpose.

46.12 PRUNING SAWS

Several types of saws are required for different operations involved in preparation of horticultural plants. The commonly use are (half noon) saws, Lamp Home saws and straight saws. All off them have long and widely set teeth to facilitate pruning or cutting of a green wood. In general, a small saw is required for cutting hard branches of the stock plant and sometimes the same saw can be used for pruning also.  Its blade should be narrow so that it can pass through the narrow or closely spaced branches.

46.13 PRUNING SHEARS

The different types of shears like hard shears looping shears, tree trimmers etc. are needed in a garden .Pruning shears should not be very expensive but these should be made up of good steel. Similarly these should make a smooth and clean cut with least injury to the plants. 

46.14 LADDER           

In preparation work ladder is required for operations like cutting of bud wood, training of vigorous plants and top working of old and declining plants. In general step ladder or straight ladders or hook ladders are used for suck operations in the propagation field.

 46.15 TYPING & WRAPPING MATERIALS

In the  most of the grafting and budding  methods, it is essential to hold scion and  stock firmly together to have successful  graft/ bud union , for which , a suitable  typing  or wrapping  material  is required / Accordingly nurserymen and other propagators use different material to achieves  desired  results from budding and grafting.

1. Waxed String and Cloth:  It is the most commonly used typing material by the nurserymen. It can easily be prepared by dipping narrow strip (25-30 cm wide) of long cloth in the melted bee wax. This waxed clothes strips can be use for typing the stock and scion after budding or grafting. The added advantage of using these stripes is that these eliminate the need of further waxing. Such types of wrapping material restrict the entry of water to the bud union.
2. Waxed String: Next to waxed cloth, waxed strings are the most commonly used typing material. It can be prepared by soaking a ball of cotton twine in a a mixture of resin (1 kg), bee wax (500 g) and linseed   oil (250gms) and paraffin (120 g) for 10 to 15 minutes. This cotton ball should be rotated repeatedly while kept in the above mixture. For large scale grafting operations waxed strings is the most convenient because it adheres to plant part without typing. However, it should be strong enough to hold the grafted plant parts together and week enough to be broken by hand.
3. Raffia Fiber: It is a strong fiber and it not easily damaged by heat or rain. For proper working with raffia fiber, it must be moistened by wrapping it in damp cloth overnight.
4. Rubber Strip: Rubber strip provided better grip to the stock and scion than raffia fiber or waxed cloth. These are highly elastic and can be.