Introduction

1. Introduction Plantation crops are perennial horticultural crops grown on large scale. Coconut, Areca nut, Cocoa, Oil palm, Tea, Coffee, Rubber, Cashew nut, Tapioca etc are different Plantation crops. Rubber, Tea and Coffee are known as estate crops as they are grown as large plantations. Rubber is commercially propagated by seeds and budding. Tea by cuttings and grafts. While Coffee is propagated by seeds, cuttings as well as grafts.

2. Rubber Propagation by Seeds • Seedling raised with hybrid seeds collected from approved polyclonal gardens. Viability of rubber seeds is short and should be sown without delay on moderately shaded well-drained soil beds. • Germination seed beds are 90 cm wide, 10-15 cm raised and conveniently long. Collected seeds are washed, spread on beds and pressed gently into sand. Seeds are covered with gunny bag or coir and watered twice a day to avoid evaporation losses. • Germination takes 6-7 days. Beds are inspected daily. Seeds with emerging radicals are picked, washed in water and planted in nursery medium. Non-germinated seeds are discarded.

3. Rubber Propagation by Budding Two types of budding are practiced in Rubber plantation: brown budding and green budding. Brown Budding: Uses buds from bud stick about one year old and rootstock about 10 months old. Vigorously growing healthy bud sticks with 3 cm diameter and root stocks 7.5 cm girth at base are ideal. Green Budding: Rootstock and bud stick are young. 2-8 months old. vigorous seedlings with height of 15 cm, basal girth of 2.5 cm and brown bark in color are used as rootstocks. Green buds are selected from 6-8 week old bud sticks.

4. Rubber Propagation by Budding • Beds Size: 60-120 cm width and of convenient length. • Planting distance varies according to stock to be raised: Seedling : 23X23 cm or 30X30 cm or 34X20 cm Budded Stumps: 30X30 cm or 60X25 cm Rootstocks: 60X60 cm Bud Wood: 90X90 cm or 120X60 cm • Budding facilitates large scale propagation of rubber. Unsuitable seedlings can be modified at early stage by budding. • Regular weeding, manuring, mulching and pest control are essential for optimum growth.

5. Coffee Propagation by Seeds: • Seeds are collected from healthy and mature fruits of selected mother plants. Seeds are extracted, cleaned, dried and treated with appropriate fungicide like Carbendazim. • Seeds sown on germination beds sprout in 4-5 days. Seedlings are transplanted into polybags or secondary nursery beds which are made from a mixture of FYM, river sand, lime and soil. • Seedlings raised in polybags are transplanted at 6-8 months age. Secondary nursery grown seedlings require 16-18 months before being transplanted.

6. Vegetative Propagation of Coffee Cutting: 10 cm long, single node, semi hard wood cuttings are taken from vertical shoots, treated with 5000 ppm IBA solution and planted in polybags. Bags are kept in 2X1X0.5 m3 shaded trenches. Cuttings root in 3-4 months after which they are hardened for 2 months in shade. Grafting: Two grafting methods are used in coffee. Seedling grafting is used for nematode, soil borne disease and drought problems. Grafting older plants (top working) improves the old, unproductive and diseased plantations. Plants are ready for transplanting in 1 year.

7. Propagation of Tea by Cuttings • Green semi-hardwood cuttings, 3 cm long, with mother leaf and active axillary bud are selected. They are dipped in 0.002% NAA for 5 minutes and then planted in 150 gauge 30X10 cm polybags. Planted cuttings are shaded by erecting madap or pandal. • Planting medium: Sandy loam soil in upper 1/3rd portion of polybag while clay loam soil in the bottom 2/3rd portion with a pH of 5.0 • Cuttings are lightly watered. 0.3% Nutrients solution of Ammonium Phosphate, Murate of Potash, Magnesium Sulphate and Zinc Sulphate is sprayed on weekly basis.

8. Propagation of Tea • Rooting takes 3 months. Plants are hardened for another 4-6 months. The cuttings are topped at 30 to 35 cm prior to planting. • Tea is also propagated by grafting. A desired yielding scion is grafted on a hardy root stock by wedge and cleft method. This method is practiced for improving the quality old tea plantations. • Nursery requirements for union of graft is similar to that required for rooting of cuttings