Abstract:
The nursery is a place for rearing and multiplying plants with
minimal damage and maximum success. Conventionally, vegetable
seedlings are grown in open fields which lead to the production of
weak seedlings. An attempt was made to raise vegetable seedlings in
protected structures. Different structures and media were tried for
the same. Greenhouse was found more suitable for nursery raising of solanaceous
vegetable crops during the peak rainy season. Seedlings raised in low tunnels showed
better performance during the rest of the period. The various treatments did not have
significant difference in all cases, but the solarized plots were seen to be better in most
of the cases. In general, it was found that nursery raising of solanaceous crops under
protected structures are more effective during the monsoon period of Kerala than the
open field nursery raising in terms of number of seedlings emerged, shootlength and
rootlengh.