MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC CROPS (2+1)

Cultivation

Soil and climate

The species is adapted to varied types of soil starting from red loam to lateritic, calcareous, and black clay soils. It can tolerate a pH of 6.5 to 7.5. However for commercial cultivation, well drained red loam soils are preferred. Being a short duration crop, the soil stratum should be ideal for root and vegetative growth within a short period and all desired nutrients should be available.
Being a weed, it tolerance a wide range of climatic condition ranging from the dry and water starved regions to regions having high rainfall. The crop does not like water logging but at the same time, assured irrigation is required throughout its life time to get the economic returns.

Season
Both the monsoons are suitable for its growth. Winter season is not ideal as the crop is susceptible to powdery mildew disease.

Propagation
The species is propagated by seeds. Seed extraction is a complicated effort and care has to be taken to extract healthy seeds alone for sowing. The seeds lose germination very quickly and therefore freshly harvested seeds are used for sowing.
The seeds have to be sown in nursery beds to get the desired yield. Seeds treated with carbendazim (1 g/l) and mixed with the fine sand and sown on raised nursery beds applied with plenty of organic manure. The seeds germinate in about a week and are maintained up to 20 days. Soaking the seeds in fresh water for 20-30 min before sowing would help in increased germination. About 2.5 kg of seeds is required for nursery raising and for planting in one hectare.

Field preparation
The land is well ploughed and brought to a fine tilth by adding 10 t of farm yard manure/ha.

Transplanting
The plants are propagated by seeds. The months of April- May have been found excellent for raising the nursery. Approximately 1 kg of seeds is enough to get sufficient seedlings for transplanting an area of 1 ha.
Healthy vigorous seedlings of 35-40 old or 15 cm height are pulled out from the nursery and transplanted to the main field. Beds of convenient sizes are prepared and the seedlings are transplanted in the ridges at 20x15 cm.

Manures and fertilizers
At the time of last ploughing 10t/ha FYM is applied. A dose of 100 :50:50 kg of NPK is optimum to obtain better growth and herbage yield. Half the dose of N and full dose of P & K should be applied at the time of transplanting and the remaining half of N is applied when plants attain 40-45 cm height.

Irrigation
The field should be irrigated before and after transplanting of the seedlings. Life irrigation should be given three days after the planting. The crop requires adequate irrigation through out its life period. Irrigation once in a week is required. Phyllanthus will not tolerate water logged condition.

Interculture
Weed infestation would pose a problem in the initial stages. Weeds carried on through the FYM should be removed and the young seedlings should be encouraged to grow. Chemical weeding is not allowed in P. amarus field as it is harmful to this plant.