Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Haripriya.S
Horticultural College and Research Institute
Tamil Nadu Agricultural university, Coimbatore – 641 003
The raised seedbeds of 2.0 m length, 1.0 m width and 20 cm height were prepared. To each
bed, 5.0 kg of well-decomposed Farm Yard Manure was applied and mixed well. The seeds were
soaked in water for about tweleve hours, followed by soaking in GA3 500 ppm for another 12 hours
and shade dried. The shade dried seeds were mixed with sand and sown in lines of 15 cm apart. The
beds were drenched with 0.1 per cent of Copper oxy chloride to avoid damping off and watered
daily with rose can. The seeds started germinating from seventh day onwards and recorded a high
percentage (90 %) of germination. The seedlings were ready for transplanting after 45 days of
sowing.
Before transplanting, the fields were irrigated to field capacity and forty five days old
seedlings were planted at 60X60 cm spacing. Until crop establishment, plants were irrigated two days
once in furrow irrigated plots for about a month.
Intercultural opertations
The field should be kept free of weeds by regular manual weeding at fortnightly intervals.
Plant protection measures has to be carried out as per the standard recommendations. Organic
manures like, Farm Yard Manure (FYM), Vermi-Compost, Green Manure etc. may be used as per
requirement of the species. To prevent diseases, bio-pesticides could be prepared (either single or
mixture) from Neem (kernel, seeds & leaves). Likewise, Earthing up was practised once in furrow
irrigated plots at 90 days after transplanting.
Harvesting
The maturity of the crop was judged by the drying of leaves and red coloured berries. The
entire plants were uprooted for roots and leaves, which were separated from each other by cutting
the stem 1-2 cm, above the collar region. The harvested berries were soaked in water and manually
hand threshed to obtain the seeds. The seeds were then shade dried and stored in butter paper covers
at room temperature. The roots are then either cut transversely into small pieces (7 to 10 cm) or
dried as it is in the sun. The dried roots, entire or transversely cut into smaller pieces, have to be
further cleaned, trimmed and graded.