Vegetable Crop Production
Vegetable Crop Production tests short-duration crop planning, nursery raising, transplanting geometry, nutrition and protection for both kitchen gardens and market gardens.
Groups and rules
- Solanaceous: tomato, brinjal, chilli; cucurbits: cucumber, bottlegourd, watermelon; cole crops: cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli; root crops: carrot, radish, beetroot; bulb crops: onion, garlic; leafy: spinach, methi, coriander; legumes: pea, cowpea, bean.
- Nursery: raised beds of 3 m x 1 m, sterilized media, sowing in lines, thin mulching, transplanting at 4-6 true leaves after hardening.
- Rotation: never follow one family with another (tomato after brinjal invites the same wilt and fruit borer); use a legume or cereal in between.
- Staking for tomato, removal of laterals, earthing up in onion and cole crops, mulching for moisture and weed control.
Worked example. Tomato at 60 cm x 45 cm: spacing area = 0.60 x 0.45 = 0.27 m2; plants per hectare = 10,000 / 0.27 = 37,037; add 10% for gap filling = 40,741 seedlings. A 3 m x 1 m bed raises about 3,000 seedlings, so you need about 14 beds (40,741 / 3,000 = 13.6, round up). Reasoning: keep lengths in metres, compute per-plant area, divide into the total area, then round up for beds.
Traps that cost marks
- Giving seed rate in kg/ha when the question asks for seedlings.
- Transplanting without hardening, or burying the tomato collar.
- Listing potato as a root crop instead of a tuber crop.
- Confusing cole crops (cabbage, cauliflower) with leafy vegetables.
- Planting cucurbits in the same plot year after year.