Crop Production of Commercial and Horticultural Crops
Crop Production of Commercial and Horticultural Crops
This domain covers vegetables, fruits, spices, flowers and plantation crops, with emphasis on propagation, nursery management, spacing, training, harvesting indices and post-harvest handling. Odisha examples include tomato, brinjal, chilli, okra, mango, banana, coconut and cashew.
Core rules and concepts
- Horticultural crops may be propagated sexually by seed or asexually by cuttings, layering, grafting, budding and suckers. Asexual propagation preserves the variety.
- Nursery seedlings need clean media, drainage, shade and hardening before transplanting. Transplanting shock is reduced by root care and irrigation at establishment.
- Plant population per hectare = 10,000 ÷ (row spacing in metres × plant spacing in metres).
- Harvest maturity differs from market maturity. Fruits may be picked mature-green for distant markets and riper for local sale.
Worked example
Tomato is planted at 60 cm × 45 cm. Convert spacings to metres: 0.60 m × 0.45 m = 0.27 m² per plant. One hectare = 10,000 m². Plant population = 10,000 ÷ 0.27 = 37,037 plants/ha. The reasoning is that each plant occupies 0.27 m², so dividing total area by area per plant gives the number of plants.
Traps that cost marks
Do not forget to convert centimetres to metres before dividing. Do not confuse a fruit crop with a vegetable crop in classification questions. Do not apply field-crop spacing to horticultural crops without checking the recommended package. Harvesting too early or too late changes both yield and market quality.