Olericulture (Vegetable Production)
Domain 4 tests vegetable production: classification, nursery management, transplanting, spacing and season-wise cropping plans used in Maharashtra.
Classification
- Botanical families: solanaceae (tomato, brinjal, chilli), cucurbitaceae (cucumber, bitter gourd), malvaceae (okra), brassicaceae (cabbage, cauliflower).
- By edible part: fruit (tomato), leaf (spinach), root (carrot), stem (knol-khol), flower (broccoli), pod (pea).
- By season: kharif, rabi, summer and perennial.
Nursery and field establishment
- Use raised beds, well-decomposed FYM, and solarisation or drenching to check damping-off.
- Tomato seedlings are ready in 25-30 days; harden them before transplanting.
- Transplant in the evening, irrigate immediately, and avoid deep planting.
Spacing and population
Plant population per hectare = 10,000 m2 / (row spacing x plant spacing in metres).
Worked example
Tomato at 60 cm x 45 cm: area per plant = 0.60 x 0.45 = 0.27 m2. Population = 10,000 / 0.27 = about 37,000 plants per hectare. Reasoning: spacing arithmetic gives the plant stand, which multiplies per-plant yield and input doses; wider spacing raises per-plant yield but lowers total yield.
Marks-losing traps
- Confusing seed rate with plant population.
- Calling tomato a vegetable botanically; it is a fruit.
- Direct sowing of crops that must be transplanted, such as tomato and brinjal.
- Mixing up kharif and rabi seasons for cool-season cole crops.