Production of palnting materials

Propagation

The seed viability extends up to 6 months. Before sowing, seeds are put in water and only the sinkers will be used and floaters rejected. Seeds germinate in 4-6 weeks and the cracked seeds are transplanted in polythene sleeves.

Polythene sleeves of 150 g may be used in the nursery. It is recommended to use a 10 cm lay-flat polythene tube of 30 cm length. The lower three-fourths of the sleeves may be filled with jungle top soil with appropriate proportions of sand to make it a sandy loam. The top one-fourth portion of the sleeve should be filled with the rooting medium. Both the soils should have a pH of 4.5 to 4.8 and EC below 0.05 dsm-1. Single nodal cuttings and the grafted plants are prone to pestalotia attack for the first to six weeks after planting. Contact fungicides like mancozeb at the rate of 30 g in 10 litres of water may be applied for protecting the rooting cuttings from pestalotia attack. Planted cuttings should be kept inside the nursery 'Pandal' for six to eight months and then transferred to the open space for hardening. The plants will be ready for planting in the main field in 9 months.