The Farmers' Handbook, Part 2 - Near the House, Volume 1

The Farmers' Handbook

Near the HousePart Two

This Volume's Authors : Chris Evans, Belmaya Rana, Bhuvan KhadkaEdited, Designed & Produced by: Chris Evans & Jakob JespersenTranslated from Nepali by Chris EvansProof reading: thanks to Mike Feingold, Margaret Evans, Ted Albins, Rupert Greville, JakobJespersen, Andy Langford, Looby MacnamaraPhotos: Jakob Jespersen, Chris EvansAddional photo credits are given in Volume FiveCover illustration: Mr Motilal PhaujaTyping: Chris EvansComputer Coordination: Graphics Edge, KathmanduPublished by: Chris Evans, Jakob Jespersen......Distributors: .......... (see p.8 for address)Printed by: Format Printing Press, Kathmandu......First Edition (Nepali) printed June 2001, 7500 copiesThis Edition.........Farmers' Handbook, ISBN 99933-615-0-X.......This Volume : 99933-615-3-4........

The Farmers' Handbook is about techniques for sustainable farming and this is the thirdof 5 volumes. There are 13 techniques presented here. In five volumes there are 44 techniquesand approaches in total.

This Farmers' Handbook is meant for education and awareness raising as well aspractical gardening uses. It is permitted to photocopy for such purposes, but please rememberthat photocopying can cause pollution to the environment, is expensive & does not give a goodquality.

C O N T E N T SC O N T E N T SC O N T E N T SC O N T E N T SC O N T E N T SC O N T E N T S

Subject Booklet No:

Booklets are separated by a yellow page

Introduction to this Volume .......................... 1Kitchen Garden ............................................. 2Mixed Vegetable Gardening ......................... 3

Off-Season Onion Growing .......................... 4Growing Herbs .............................................. 5Home Nursery ............................................... 6Hot Bed.......................................................... 7Air Nursery.................................................... 8Leaf Pots........................................................ 9Introduction to Fruit Production ................. 10

Fruit Nursery ................................................ 11

Grafting ......................................................... 12

Budding ......................................................... 13

Stone Grafting ............................................... 14

This is the third volume of a five volume production ofthe Farmers' Handbook. In all there are forty four techniquesand approaches shown, of which thirteen are in this thirdvolume. In this volume we introduce you to some more of themethods used near the house (part two). The titles of these aregiven on the previous contents page.

This Farmers' Handbook has been prepared to provideinformation about sustainable farming methods as well asbeing a resource to run literacy programmes. Informationabout such programmes and how the Handbook can be usedis provided in the fifth volume. As well as technicalinformation, a glossary of new or difficult words is alsoprovided in the fifth volume.

The Farmers' Handbook -this Volume's Introduction

Aims

Background

Evaluation & Feedback

The main aim of this handbook is to help farmers maketheir own farms more successful. This is done by providinginformation about using simple methods which strengthen,rather than damage the environment, and help to createsustainable livelihoods for future generations.

Comments and/or questions about the techniques andapproaches described in this handbook will be most welcome.Suggestions for improvement will be used for future editionsof this handbook and other similar publications.

The techniques described in the handbook are the resultsof research made by the farmers of Surkhet and Jajarkotdistricts of Mid-Western Nepal. We believe these methods willalso work well for farmers of other countries. However,around the world there are diverse climates and soils, and sowe expect that small changes will need to be made in thetechniques according to this diversity. Similarly, it may benecessary to change plant species according to climatic region,but their function will remain the same. For example, thechapter on the Living Fence describes the use of thorny plantsas a barrier. In the low altitude, hot Tarai of southern Nepal,"Babool" (Acacia nilotica) is suitable for this. But this doesnot grow in the higher elevations. Here, species such as wildpear, wild blackberry and Sea Buckthorn make a good livingfence.

Structure of the Handbook

Techniques

Kitchen Garden 2

Mixed Vegetable Gardening 3

Off-Season Onion Growing 4

Information About Herbs 5

Home Nursery 6

Hot Bed 7

Air Nursery 8

Leaf Pots 9

Introduction to Fruit Production 10

Fruit Nursery 11

Grafting 12

Budding 13

Stone Grafting 14

There are minor changes to this structure as necessary.

Inside the handbook each method is descibed in aseparate chapter, or chapter. All methods are descibed in thesame way:-

• "What is?" - the method is defined and described.• "Why?" - the benefits of using this method are then

described.• The main part is then "How to?" make or do the method;• In the "How To" section the centre pages show colour

pictures about the method.• After describing how to create the method, how to

maintain, care for, manage and/or operate it is described.• After this, there is an interview with an experienced

farmer who has built and used the method.• Finally, information is given about other chapters in the

Handbook which are directly connected to this method.

Support for the production and printing of TheFarmers' Handbook has come from ActionAid Nepal,

MSNepal, Methodist Relief & Development Fund(UK), GTZ Food for Work, Hill Agriculture Research

Project (HARP), ICIMOD. In this volume, thechapter on "Grafting "has been supported by

Helvetas Nepal

email:- [email protected]

Nepal Permaculture GroupP.O.Box 8132, Kathmandu, NepalTel: +977-1- 252597

FundingSupport

Distributor andmain contact

addresses

Himalayan Permaculture Group, P.O.Box 19121, Kathmandu, Nepal

lxdfn lb3f{o' ;d"x, n]v˚;f{ – @, k'/fgf] ufp“,;'v]{t

Appropriate Technology AsiaP.O. Box 8975 EPC 849KathmanduNepaltel: +977 1 [email protected]

Permaculture Association UKBCM Permaculture AssociationLondon WC1N 3XXTel: +44 845 [email protected]

Permanent PublicationsThe Sustainability CentreEast MeonHampshire GU32 1HRtel: +44 1730 [email protected]

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What is a

Farmers fromMulsam inJajarkot,

Nepal, displayvegetablesfrom their

kitchengardens

A kitchen garden is where herbs and vegetables aregrown around the house for household use. Since early timesa small plot near to the house has been used for growing avariety of vegetables according to the season. Local varietiessuch as radish, broad leaf mustard, chilli, beans, pumpkinsetc. are all grown in the kitchen garden.

In this chapter we provide information on how to estab-lish and manage kitchen gardens with minimum input formaximum output, and show how to produce varied and nutri-tious crops of herbs and vegetables for use in the kitchen.

Kitchen Garden ?Kitchen Garden ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden

WhyWhy HowHow

3

make aKitchen Garden ?

to make aKitchen Garden ?

For people to stay healthy it's very important to have ahealthy diet. A healthy diet means a balanced mix of rice,bread, pulses, vegetables, herbs, fruit etc. Vegetables are avery important part of a good diet as they contain variousnutrients for many body functions. For growing, energy andprotection against disease, vegetables play an essential role.Vegetables are especially important for the young, and forpregnant and nursing women.

• to grow healthy, fresh vegetables yourself;• to save the cost of buying vegetables and herbs;• waste resources such as sweepings, kitchen scraps and

dirty water can be recycled onto the garden;• wasteland around the house can be made productive.

Because there's often no tradition of kitchen gardens,many people can't grow the vegetables they need for a gooddiet. Or they spend lots of money on vegetables, or theirhealth suffers from lack of vegetables.

It may be that you haven't been able to make a kitchengarden. There are several rea-sons why it may be difficult tomake a kitchen garden, or if youhave made one, it is not success-ful. For example:

• pests, diseases or livestock

have destroyed the crop;

• no good seed or seedlings;

• lack of space;

• lack of water;

• lack of fertility;

• no spare time;

• lack of the right skills.

These vegetableshave wilted be-cause of lack of

water

In this chapter easy meth-ods are described to solve these sorts of problems, and so helpthe family to be able to grow good produce from their kitchengarden.

Benefits of the Kitchen Garden

This Booklet's Author :Chris Evans, advisor,Himalayan Permaculture Group, Nepalwww.designedvisions.com

2

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden4 5

Beneficial Connections in the Kitchen Garden

collecting waste water

home nursery (hotbed, fruit nursery, etc.)

living fence

vegetable beds

livestock stall

sweepings pit

air nursery

fence (not living)

liquid manure

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h

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d

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e

a

domestic waste watercollection

ash, water, hair, etc.composting re-sources from thehouse to the land

How to make the work easierin the Kitchen Garden

seeds from the garden tohouse and from house togarden sweepings from the

house and courtyard

waste water used for irriga-tion in the kitchen garden

use of compost

liquid manure also used tocontrol pests and disease

fodder from the landand live fence, andcompost returned tothe land

mulch material from thelive fence and edges

vegetables etc. fromthe kitchen gardento the house

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Working rela-tionships in theKitchen Garden

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Things to pay attention to

To make and manage a kitchen garden easily, and to givebest production, the following things are important :-

Good management of the garden needs knowledge of allthese. Then we can make our kitchen garden more successful.

1. Site selection

3. Water management

5. Seed & seedlings

2. Protection

4. Fertility

6. Design of the garden

1. Site selection

If you already have a kitchen garden you may not needto choose a new site, it's enough to improve the old site. Ifyou are making a new garden, there are many factors to con-sider. For example :-

• how to protect from livestock ?• how can you bring water to the site and distribute

it ?• how is the soil ? How can the fertility needs be

managed ?• where is the sunlight coming from ?• how can the area be accessed easily from the house ?

When these issues are considered, the best site can bechosen and the work of making the garden will be easier.

Things to pay attention to

1. Site selection

2. Protection

• The kitchen garden area needs protec-tion from the very start. It should not bepossible for livestock to enter the area. Apermanent fence should be made. Thornyplants can be cut and used to make afence, but the best method is to plant a

living fence to protect the garden.

• Then, the crops within the garden will also need protectionfrom damage by many types of pest and disease. There aremany ways to do this. Mixed cropping, rotations, liquid ma-nure, etc. are all ways of protecting crops. There is more infor-mation about crop protection in the chapter Integrated PestManagement.

2. Protection


3. Water Mangement

It is important to provide enough moisture for thekitchen garden. There are many ways of conserving and in-creasing the moisture available. For example :-

• Provide shade : in the hot season trees can provide shadeto the kitchen garden. A few small trees, such as Lucaena,mulberry, Moringa (drum-stick), Persian lilac, or evenfruit trees in the fence or withinthe garden can be used for this.As well as giving shade, thesetrees can also provide otherbenefits, such as firewood,fodder or mulch material.

• Mist collection : mist collects on theleaves of trees around and within thekitchen garden, and drips onto the soilto provide extra moisture.

wind

3. Water Mangement

• Windbreak : wind will dryout the soil, so stopping thewind helps to conserve soilmoisture;

• Green Manures : also cover the soil, and so help inconserving water;

Guidelines for IrrigationBy only putting a little water over a wide area, only the

surface will be kept moist. This can cause roots to stay nearthe soil surface and in strong sun they can dry out very easily.So it's much better to irrigate less area with more water, so themoisture goes deeper in the soil. Then this area will not needwatering again for a long time. In the hot season, irrigate inthe evening or at night, and not in the daytime.

• Irrigation : if there is no irrigationfor main food crops, it is likelythat there is also not enough waterto irrigate the kitchen garden. Butif the above methods are used,then more water is conserved andso less is needed. Collecting andusing waste water from the kitchencan be enough to water the garden. Also, direct water fromcommunal tapstands can be used on kitchen gardens.

Deep wateringis better for

deep rooting,and irrigationis needed less

often.

Shallow watering meansroots stay at the surfaceand will soon dry out.

• Mulching : prevents the wind and sun drying the bare soil;

sunshine


Let's See How to make aKitchen Garden

Kitchen garden pro-tected inside a woven

bamboo fence.

Even chickens can'tget through thisfence made from

wormwood stalks.

Near thehouse manytypes of foodplants can begrown in thesame place.

chillicoriander

passion fruit

chilli broad beanbroad beancoriander

Plantingmixed vegeta-bles helps toprotect themfrom pests anddiseases.

Edge plants pro-vide useful mulchclose to the garden

beds where theyare needed.

In mixed veg-etable planting,no space iswasted and thesoil is alwayscovered.

passion fruit

Let's See How to make aKitchen Garden


4. Fertility4. Fertility

All farmers know that without fertility in the soil, cropswon't grow. But fertility can be as limited as water. If thereisn't enough compost for the field crops, it can't be taken andused for the kitchen garden. So our kitchen garden needs tobe self reliant for fertility. Suggestions for sources of fertilityare given below :-

• Sweepings pit :- by collecting every-day sweepings from the house and yardin one place, you can make enoughcompost for the kitchen garden.

• Green manures :- sowing seeds ofgreen manure helps to protect the soiland gives extra fertility for more produc-tion

• Mulching :- putting a thick layer ofbiomass mixed with compost on thesoil helps to increase fertility.

• Liquid manure :- liquid manuremade in a pit or a drum gives nutri-ents to the plants as well as protect-ing them from pests and diseases.

• Legumes :- planting legumes such aspeas, beans, Sesbania, sun hemp, etc.,provides extra nitrogen to the soilwhich is good for other crops

• Other sources :- ash, oil seed cake,hair etc. are all resources which canbe added to the soil to increase fertil-ity, as well as helping to prevent pestsand disease.

5. Seeds and Seedlings

A kitchen garden can provide very good food from local,traditional vegetables, and it's important not to lose theselocal varieties. However, sometimes farm-ers are also interested to try new varie-ties. So it's very important to save andprotect any good seed - this is the farm-er's responsibility. Information aboutseed saving is given in the Seed Savingchapter. From good seed, it is importantto be able to raise good, healthy seed-lings for transplanting into the kitchen garden.Nursery techniques are described in the Home Nursery, Airnursery, Hot bed and Leaf Pots chapters.

5. Seeds and Seedlings


6. Garden Design

broad beanpeascauliflowercarrot

tomatoSwiss chardgarlicmarigold

onioncorianderbeetrootcomfrey

new seedlings - see "succession" on the next page

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24 5 6

7 810 1211

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• More production in a small place

Planting lots of varietiescan give good production

in a small area

6. Garden Design

Species not shown, but also possible to plantVegetables :- cabbage, kale, radish, turnip, kohl rabi, chilli,broad leaf mustard, spinach, lettuce, aubergine, beans, etc.

Vegetable or herb companion plants :- fennel, dill, basil, tansy, etc.

If seeds and seedlings are planted too wide apart, muchof the space in between goes to waste, where weeds willgrow. Weeds use precious water and compost, and cause extrawork to keep clear. You also have to work harder to replacethe water and compost which are lost to the weeds. This iswhy it's best to plant vegetables densely. But if only one typeof vegetable is planted densely, it will compete with itself forspace above and below ground, and so not be a good crop. Soit's better to plant a mix of small and large types, to makedifferent layers of crops on the same bed. These will alsohave different layers of roots in the soil.

This means many plants can be grown in a small space,but there is no competition between crops for space, waterand nutrients.

• Succession

As smaller vegetables are harvested for food, thismakes space for the longer lasting vegetables, while inbetween new seedlings can be planted.

Succession

Newly plantedcauliflowerseedlings

Previously plantedbroad leaf

mustard seedlings


It's not only the making of the kitchen garden, we must alsobe able to maintain it easily. It can be fun to create and plant agarden, but having to work every day to maintain it may soonbecome difficult, and so the garden gets neglected. Edge plant-ing helps to make maintenance work easy in the kitchen garden.

"Edge planting" means the growing of support crops, orcompanion plants, in the edges around the garden and itsbeds. These plants help support the garden by providingmulch, protection from weeds, windbreaks, repelling pests,and producing other useful resources. Plants such as worm-wood, Adhatoda vasica, marigold, comfrey, lemon grass,nettles, Lucaena, mulberry, basil, tansy, and many others aregood for edge planting.

Edge Planting

Benefits of Edge PlantingEdge planting helps with protecting the garden and also

producing fodder, fuel, nectar for bees, herbs for medicines, soilconservation (terrace stabilisation), habitat for pest predators, etc.

Edge plantstake nutrientsfrom deep inthe soil and

cycle them tothe surface,where theyare used asmulch, and

then returnedto the soil.

Beneficialpredator insectstake nectar from

the flowers.

Then theyattack pest

insects.

The smell of marigoldflowers and leaves helpto repel many types ofpest insect. They alsoproduce a substancefrom their roots whichrepels damaging soilnematodes.

Where to plant ?• in fences • in agro-forestry• on terrace edges • on the edges of vegetable beds• on path edges • around the edge of the courtyard• on the edge of the

compost heap, waste water pit, sweepings pit, path, etc.


Read On !Read On !

Subjects Related to Kitchen GardenThis book provides enough information to be able to

make and manage your own kitchen garden. However, thisinformation is also linked to other methods. For extra benefitslet's read, learn and practice from these related chapters.

SeedSavingchapter

Compostchapter

LiquidManurechapter

Nutritionchapter

LivingFence

chapterKitchen Garden

chapter

SweepingsChapter

WasteWater chapter

Mixed VegetableGardening chapter

Mulchingchapter

Integrated PestManagement

chapterGreen Manures

chapter

Home Nurserychapteræ

Æ

Farmers'ExperienceFarmers'Experience

Mr Shyam Shrestha ownsSunrise Farm in Sita Paila-4, Kathmandu, Nepal. Hehas experience makingkitchen gardens, so let'shear his story.

Mr Shyam Shrestha

Shyam Shrestha

At first I used to farm thetraditional way but doing this,one type of vegetable wasgrown all together so therewere more pest problems, andmore maintenance was neededas well. I've been collecting waste water from the kitchen forirrigation. For compost, I collect the rubbish around the houseand cow shed into a sweepings pit. When I plant varioustypes of vegetables mixed together, there are less pest prob-lems. There's less weeding too, because they're planted soclosely, and I mulch where I can. When I harvest, I clearwhatever weeds there are and mulch them back on the beds -that's more compost. I collect seed from the best plants ofeverything. With this method, I plant once and then need verylittle work or maintenance - just harvesting, and eating.Nowadays, others are starting to learn these meth-ods here for vegetable gardening themselves.

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Seed Saving chapter :- information on methodsto produce and store various quality seeds at home.

Nutrition chapter :- information about needs andsources of a healthy diet for all the family.

Living Fence chapter :- how to plant not just a fence butalso produce fodder, fuelwood, mulch and other benefits

Liquid Manure chapter :- how to use local plants tomake a liquid for fertilizer and pest control

Compost chapter :- information on how to make goodcompost quickly is given in this chapter

Waste Water chapter :- how to get irrigation for thegarden from domestic waste water.

Sweepings chapter :- how to make good compostfrom sweeping the house and yard.

Mixed Vegetable Gardening :- how to grow lots ofvegetables easily by planting many varieties at one time

Mulching chapter :- how to grow more crops with lesswork while keeping the soil covered

Integrated Pest Management chapter :- how to uselocal resources and knowledge in many different methods ofcontrolling pests and diseases

Green Manures chapter :- sow a green manure seedsto add fertility to the soil and produce more crops

Home Nursery chapter :- make nurseries from localresources to grow many types of plants at home

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What isMixed Vegetable

Gardening ?

Mixedvegetablegardeningmeansplanting lotsof differenttypes ofplants to-gether. Inconventionalgardening,different varieties of vegetable are usually planted in differentareas of the garden. So cabbage, onion, lettuce, radish, pea,etc. are all in their separate places. However, there are benefi-cial relationships between many types of vegetable and herbplants, which help them to grow. When plants grow sepa-rately, these benefits are lost to the system. This is one reasonwhy various problems can start to affect the vegetables. Tosolve these problems farmers must then work harder at weed-ing, pest control, irrigation, etc. Without this extra work,production can be lost.

Mixing different species together helps the differentcrops. So in this chapter information is provided on how toplant and maintain a mixed vegetable garden.

A mixed vegetable garden, Begnas, Nepal

Mixed VegetableGardening ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 3 - Mixed Vegetable Gardening

WhyWhy HowHowplant a MixedVegetable Garden ?

to plant a MixedVegetable Garden ?

2 3

• lack of seed & seedlings • lack of water • lack of time• lack of knowledge • lack of fertility • lack of space• pests & disease or being eaten by livestock

Many problems can affect the success of vegetablegardening. For example :-

These problems can make vegetable production seemvery difficult. They can cause the garden to fail, or productiv-ity to be less, even with high inputs.

Benefits of Mixed Vegetable Gardening

• less pest and disease• less weeding• less need to irrigate• many types of vegetable in the same place• no space is wasted• vegetables can be harvested over a longer time• high production in a small area

leek

If you have your own good method of growing vegeta-bles, don't stop all at once to try mixed vegetable gardening.Try it out on a small area of your vegetable garden and see. Ifit works well, you can increase it next year.

Materials needed• seed :- mustard, buckwheat, fenugreek, broad leaf mustard,

lettuce, chard, beetroot, coriander, fennel, radish, turnip,kohl rabi, spinach, pea, broad bean, carrot, kale, chinesecabbage, pak choy, basil, garlic, parsnip, onion (seedlings orstarts), etc.

• seedlings :- cauliflower, cabbage, brocolli, onion, leek,marigold, etc.

• compost • fertile soil• light (fine) mulch• ash, oil seed cake

parsnip

Time to plant• low-lying tropical or sub tropical - after the monsoon (Au-

tumn)• high altitude or temperate areas - in the early spring

beetroot


The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 3 - Mixed Vegetable Gardening4

Materials Needed to plant aMixed Vegetable Garden

5

Preparing the gardenThe more fertile the soil is, the less preparation is

needed. Dig the area, mix in compost and make the soil fine.Make garden beds according to your needs and the shape andslope of the land. If the width of the beds is 4 feet then thecentre of the bed can be reached without treading on the soil.

kale lettuce cabbage

various typesof seedling

various typesof seed

mulchmaterial

well rottedcompost

diggingtools

Planting SeedlingsThe soil should be fertile and fine to plant seedlings.

Plant cabbages, cauliflower, etc. at their normal dis-tance of 12-18 inches. In between and on theedges of the beds plant onion seedlingsor starts, and garlic bulbs at 4 - 6inch intervals.

Different typesof vegetablesare good forour health

Sowing SeedsFirst sow the large seeds :- pea, radish, broad (fava)

bean, climbing or dwarf beans, etc. are planted at intervals of6 inches. Make a smale hole with your finger, plant the seed,and cover. Then, thinly sow all other vegetable or herb seedexcept the mustard, buckwheat or fenugreek. Lastly, afterplanting the seedlings and sowing the seed, thickly sow themustard, buckwheat and/or fenugreek. If you don't have all ofthese 3, any one or two of them will do. On the edge of thebeds it's good to plant or sow companion plants, such aslemongrass,marigold,basil,worm-wood,comfrey,etc

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 3 - Mixed Vegetable Gardening6 7

Let's SeeLet's See How to make a MixedVegetable GardenHow to make a MixedVegetable Garden

2

1

Covering the soilAfter planting everything, sprinkle

ash on top. Then cover with fine, fertilesoil - enough to cover all the seed andash. Finally, taking care not to cover theseedlings, add a thin mulch to cover all thesoil, and water well. Now your mixedvegetable bed is complete, and all you haveto do is harvest !

sprout

cauliflowerbroadleafmustard

onion

radish

This vegetablegarden looks

good, but all thespecies are sepa-rate, so it takes

more work.

Now lets see howmuch work it takes to

look after a mixedvegetable garden

One week aftersowing, mus-

tard, fenu-greek, radish

and onionbulbs have

started to ger-minate. Cauli-flower seed-

lings have alsobeen plantedAfter 3 weeks all

types have germi-nated. Broad bean,buckwheat, Swiss

chard and kohl rabican also be seen.


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redmustard

broadleafmustard

garlic

radish

lettuce

corianderSeen close, vari-ous types of veg-

etable

radishbroadleafmustard

broadbean

Chinesemustard

redmustard

6 weeks aftersowing, pro-

duction isgood andbare soil

can't be seen

Because of dif-ferent types ofleaf shape, leaf

texture andcolour, there areless pest prob-

lemsHow many types ofvegetable can you

count ?


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How tomaintain a MixedVegetable Garden

MaintenanceMaintenance

After eating from thegarden for 4 monthsthere are still lots of

vegetables, and still nobare soil.

This farmer hassown 9 types of veg-etable together on

his large field.

By making the bed in this way, less maintenance isneeded later on. Weeding and watering may still be neededaccording to site, but the mulch, and the density of plants helpto conserve moisture and keep weeds down.

In a bed planted like this, first the mustard will germi-nate. It will be followed by broad leaf mustard, radish, fenu-greek, buckwheat, and so on. The mustard, fenugreek andbuckwheat will grow very densely, and help prevent weedsfrom growing to leave minimum weeding. From 2-3weeks, production starts with mustard leavesbeing picked as a greenleaf vegetable.Shortly after, buckwheat and fenugreekcan be picked for the same use. Pickingof these can continue over the next 2-3weeks, until they are all gone (except forseed plants).

By this time, other vegeables willstart to be ready. Broadleaf mustard, radish leaves, smallradishes, lettuce, etc. can be harvested from 1 month aftersowing. Fast growing leaf vegetables are picked to makespace for slower, longer living species.

So maintenance of the mixed vegetable bed is really justharvesting. If this doesn't happen, the vegetables will growtoo thick and the system will lose productivity. The space leftby a harvested plant is quickly taken up by another. In thisway, the bed never has any empty spaces or bare soil.


mustard greens

When can you harvest thefruits of your labour ?

Before 3 weeks

cabbage, sprout, onion, garlic, corianderseed, fennel seed, leek, brocolli, etc.

chard, cauliflower, carrot, peas, broadbeans, cabbage, onions, garlic, etc.

chard, carrot, peas, broad bean, kale, cab-bage, etc.

broadleaf mustard, chard, turnip, radish,carrot, coriander, peas, chinese cabbage,kohl rabi, beetroot, kale, etc.

radish, broadleaf mustard, lettuce, chard,coriander leaves, kohl rabi, turnip, beet-root, etc.

radish, broadleaf mustard, lettuce, Chinesemustard.

mustard greens (continued); fenugreek,buckwheat greens; radish greens.

7 months

6 months

5 months

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

After all plants are harvestedUsing this method, vegetables can be easily har-

vested and eaten for up to 7 months. Finally, after every-thing has been eaten, add compost and dig the bed readyfor the next season. If the monsoon or summer is next,maize, beans, squash, chillies, etc. can be sown. Or acrop of green manures can be grown, or the gardenmulched thickly and left fallow. It's up to you, your sea-sons, your crops and your needs. When the right seasonstarts again, the cycle is complete and the process ofmixed vegetable growing can be repeated.

5 months after sowing,radish, broad bean, cori-ander, etc. produce seed.

The soil is still com-pletely covered.


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Read On !Read On !Subjects Related to

Mixed Vegetable Gardening

15

SeedSavingchapter

Compostchapter

LiquidManurechapter

Nutritionchapter

Living Fencechapter

SweepingsChapter

WasteWater chapter

Mixed VegetableGardening chapter

Integrated Pest Management chapter :-how to use local resources and knowledge in manydifferent methods of controlling pests and diseases

Mulching chapter

Integrated PestManagement

chapter

GreenManures chapter

Kitchen Gardenchapter

æ

Æ


From Nepal, Surkhet district,Gumi - 5, Ratadada village,and a member of "Haryali"women's group, Mrs EkmayaShris has planted her ownmixed vegetable garden. Nowlet's hear about her experience.

Mrs Ekmaya Shris

Mrs Ekmaya Shris

I learnt about mixed vegeta-ble gardening from the homesteadprogramme (JPP) so I could growvegetables better. I planted greens,radish, garlic, broad beans, cabbage, coriander and others allat the same time. The beans were good young, and used forlentils when they were older. It's a good method to protectagainst pests as well, and by planting lots of types, if onedoesn't do well the others will still produce food. After plant-ing, there was always food to harvest, but no work for awhole 5 months. We start in September after the monsoon,and there's enough to eat continuously until April. Weedingisn't needed either even though we only put a light mulcharound the plants. This is a great method. Now I can teachwhat I've learned to others, and I'm still learning more aboutwhat I don't know.

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Seed Saving chapter :- information on methodsto produce and store various quality seeds at home

Nutrition chapter :- information about needsand sources of a healthy diet for all the family

Living Fence chapter :- how to plant notjust a fence but also produce fodder, fuelwood,mulch and other benefits

Liquid Manure chapter :- use local plantsto make a liquid for fertilizer and pest control

Compost chapter :- information on how tomake good compost quickly is given in this chapter

Kitchen Garden chapter :- design yourgarden to produce healthy vegetables at low cost

Waste Water chapter :- how to get irriga-tion for the garden from domestic waste water

Sweepings chapter :- how to make goodcompost from sweeping the house and yard

Mulching chapter :- how to grow more cropswith less work while keeping the soil covered

Green Manures chapter :- use green manuresto add fertility to the soil and produce more crops

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What are

Onion seedlings readyfor off-season planting

In Nepal, farmers usually start planting onions from seedin October, and transplant in November. This means thatwhen April comes the crop is ready, and for a short period thebazaar is full of onions. And that means at this time, the priceof onions is low. As a result, it's more difficult for farmers togain a good income from selling onions. However, before andafter this time, the price of onions is 2 or 3 times higher.Then, onions need to be imported from outside the country.How fine it would be for farmers to get such good prices fortheir crops. One way of making more from onion growing isby off-season onion production.

This booklet gives information on how to grow onions tosell over an extended period. Note that months are describedfor the northern hemisphere, and need to be adapted for thesouthern hemisphere.

Off-SeasonOnions ?

Off-SeasonOnions ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 4 - Growing Off-Season Onions

WhyWhy HowHowgrow off-season Onions ?

2 3

to grow off-season Onions ?

Materials Needed to grow off-season onions

• when onions are less available, they can be sold at higherprices;

• by growing onions out of season, you save having to buythem at higher prices;

• onions are a nutritious vegetable, and it's good to eat themfrom time to time. By growing them out of season, you caneat onions more regularly;

• in the off-season method, onion bulbs are planted at the endof the monsoon when there is still moisture in the soil. Thismeans that poorer farmers without irrigation can benefitmore from producing off-season onions,

Benefits of growing off-season onions New types of seed aren't needed to grow off-seasononions. You can use whatever types you are used to planting,or are locally available.

onionseed digging

tools

compost

2. Where ?Firstly you need a nursery to sow the onion seed in.

Choose a place where the seedlings can be protected andcared for easily. The onion seedlings can be transplanted intothe kitchen garden. If grown on a large scale, a transplant bedis also needed, according to the needs of the farmer.

1. When ?Onion seed is planted between October and December.

Use the same method to plant seed as in normal onion grow-ing. You can also start a little earlier, in September.


The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 4 - Growing Off-Season Onions4 5

Let's SeeLet's See3. Sowing the seed

Before sowing onion seed,soaking it in water helps to speed upgermination. Change the water twicedaily and after 2-3 days a tiny whiteroot will appear. As soon as thishappens, sow the seed in the nusery.After sowing, cover the seed with fine, fertile soil. Mixingash and ground oil seed cake with the soil provides fertility,and also helps to protect against pests in the soil. Then, coverthe soil with a fine mulch. As the onion seedlings grow,irrigate and weed as needed.

4. Transplanting the seedlingsAfter about a month in the nursery, the seedlings are

transplanted so they are a distance of about 2 inches apart.The seedlings will be about 3-6 inches tall. The nursery bedcan also be used by leaving seedlings at the required distanceafter transplanting the others.

2 inches

These seedlings will grow in the transplant nursery for a fur-ther 2 months, and need to be weeded and watered as required.

Shown here is theonion seed germi-

nating. In thelower photo the

seedlings areready for trans-

planting

How to grow off-season onions

How to grow off-season onions


After transplant-ing, the onionsgrow until the

bulbs are the sizeof a thumbnail.

Then the bulbsare lifted andplaited togetheras shown

The plaitedstrings of onionsare hung up in a

dry, airy andshaded place

They can beleft like this for

4-5 months


At the end of themonsoon the bulbsare planted again.

A shoot quicklygrows and lookslike this after a

week.

As in normal oniongrowing, bending

over the leaves helpsto produce bigger

onions bulbs.

5. When the onion bulbs are the size of athumbnail, they are ready to lift (uproot). Thebulb should be firm. After lifting, plait theleaves together to make a long string ofbulbs 18-24 inches long. There may be 50-60 bulbs in a string.

The string is hung in a shaded, dry andwell-aired place.

6. The string can be left hanging for thewhole of the monsoon. At the end of themonsoon unplait the string and plant thebulbs separately in the vegetable garden.

The off-season onions can be mixed withother vegetable varieties in the garden. More informationabout this is given in the booklets Mixed Vegetable Garden-ing and Kitchen Garden. Planting the bulbs in Septembermeans the onions will be fully grown in November. This isthe time when onions are not easily available so the marketprice is higher

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 4 - Growing Off-Season Onions10

Occasional irrigation is needed to grow onion seedlings.But by planting at the end of the monsoon there is still plentyof moisture left in the soil. If there is a lack of irrigation,groups of farmers can get together to grow seedlings in oneplace where water is available, such as below a communitytap stand. Then, the bulbs are distributed among the farmersfor storage individually. After the monsoon, everyone canthen plant onion bulbs and produce a good crop without theneed for irrigation.

It's also easy to produce seed from onions grown in thisway. Simply select the best plants, and let them grow to seed.

There's morebenefits for

farmers by sell-ing onions onthe bazaar out

of season

Æ

æ


From Nepal, Surkhet district,Gumi - 2, Shera village, MrBal Bahadur Regmi hasproduced his own off-seasononions. Now let's hear abouthis experience.

Mr Bal BahadurRegmi

Bal Bahadur Regmi

I've grown off-seasononions since 1997 and I like themethod very much. After sow-ing the seed in December, Ileave the seedlings to grow intofirm bulbs the size of mythumbnail, then lift them andhang them plaited together in a shaded and airy place. Then inSeptember I make beds and plant the bulbs again. At thattime, the soil is moist from the monsoon, so I don't need toirrigate. The onions are then ready to eat and sell in Novem-ber. This method is really easy and I can eat onions whenthere's normally none available. And because there areno other onions available, they're more expensive.You can also save seed using this method. Nowa-days others in the village have started to use thismethod. We produce seedlings on our farm, and dis-tribute the bulbs to other farmers to continue the method ofplanting the bulbs on their own land.

11

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Read On !Read On !Subjects Related to

Growing Off-Season OnionsGood benefits can be had from the information in this

book about growing off-season onions. However, this infor-mation is also linked to other methods. For extra benefits let'sread, learn and practice from other related booklets.

Kitchen Garden andMixed Vegetable Growing booklets

How to make and manage a home vegetablegarden for permanence, ease and simplicity ?These booklets give information on how to doless work for more production, while also beingable to produce a wide range of fresh vegetables.

Seed Saving bookletThis booklet gives information on methods toproduce and store various quality seeds at home.

Home Nursery bookletDifferent plant species have different ways ofpropagation. This booklet tells how to easily growmany types of plant for home use.

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In our diets, we eat not only grains, bread, vegetablesand pulses but also different types of herbs. Herbs make foodmore tasty and can also help digestion, and act as medicines.So it's a good idea to learn how to grow appropriate newtypes of herb. In this booklet we learn about some new typesof herb, and how to grow and use them for more benefits inour diet and garden.

How to read the information on new herb varieties ?

1. The herb's name2. Its drawing

6. Its functionsand benefits

3. Its height

4. Its age

5. How to plant itsseed or seedling

Information AboutGrowing Herbs

Information AboutGrowing Herbs

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 5 - Information About Growing Herbs

Information About Growing HerbsInformation About Growing Herbs

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 5 - Information About Growing Herbs2 3

Species

Drawing ofthe Plant

Height

Age

PlantingMethod

Function

Balm

1 metre

perennial

sow direct, orraise in a nursery

and transplant

• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• mulch material

Basil

50 cm

annual


and transplant

• mix with vegetables• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure

perennial

Borage

50 cm

annual


and transplant


and transplant

• mix with vegetables• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure• mulch material

Chamomile

50 cm50 cm

perennial

raise in a nurseryand transplant

• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• mulch material

• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant

Lavender




Species

Drawing ofthe Plant

Height

Age

PlantingMethod

Function

perennial

50 cm

annual

sow seed or plantcutting in a nurs-

ery, and transplant

• mix with vegetables• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant

Marjoram



ery, and transplant

50 cm

Rosemary


ery, and transplant

• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure• mulch material

perennial annual

Sage Tansy Thyme

perennial

up to 1 metre 1 metre 50 cm


ery, and transplant


ery, and transplant


• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure

raiseand

soraise

and




Species

Drawing ofthe Plant

Height

Age

PlantingMethod

Function


perennial

up to 1 metre50 cm


ery, and transplant

Oregano Nasturtium

perennial

sow direct or raisecuttings in a nurs-ery, and transplant


• mix with vegetables• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure• mulch material

perennial perennial

sow seed in anursery andtransplant

LemonBergamot

Sorrel Comfrey

Flower

1 metre 25 cm 50 cm

perennial


and transplant

from rootcuttings

• tea• medicine• companion planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure

• mix with vegetables• medicine• edge plant


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Spec

iesD

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Hei

ght

Age

Pla

ntin

gM

etho

dF

unct

ion

annual

• mix withvegetables

• medicine• companion

planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant

perennial


50 cm

SummerSavory Feverfew Parsley

50 cm 30 cm

perennial




planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant• liquid manure

• mix withvegetables


planting• bee food (nectar)• edge plant

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What is a

A Home Nurseryis a nursery made inyour own garden togrow plants that youneed yourself. There isno single way to makea Home Nursery, nor isit made for just onetype of plant. Vegeta-ble, fodder, fruit, me-dicinal herbs, and othertypes of seedling canall be grown in thehome nursery. Then,you can plant theseseedlings on your ownland, or distribute toyour friends, or evensell them. For differentspecies of seedling,there are different types of home nursery.

In this chapter simple methods are described for grow-ing different types of plants for home use.

Belmaya Rana and her HomeNursery, Surkhet, Nepal

Home Nursery ?Home Nursery ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 6 - Home Nursery

WhyWhy HowHow

2 3

make aHome Nursery ?

to make aHome Nursery ?

• to obtain suitable seedlings when needed;• to produce seedlings close to where they are needed;• so seedlings can be cared for and protected at home;• to grow the right species which are right for the local climate;• to make use of domestic waste resources for water and

compost;• to improve productivity on your own

land using trees and shrubs;• seedlings can be exchanged or

sold;• by producing seedlings

yourself you don't need toimport them;

• you increase your skills

It may be that you don't have the resources in your vil-lage to build and manage a large nursery. In a big nurserymore water, compost, and more maintenance would beneeded. This means there is less time to spend working athome, and an extra person would need to be employed. Inmany villages it's difficult to make such arrangements. So,you can use local waste resources and simple methods tosuccessfully raise seedlings, even if only a few, at home.

There are many methods of growing plants, and manydifferent types of nursery to do this. The fruit nursery, leaf potnursery, hot bed, air nursery, etc. all have their own methods.They are described in more detail in other chapters.

In this chapter, at first information is given about thingsconcerned with any type of nursery. After that, we give someexamples of useful types of nursery.

Materials Needed to make a Home Nursery

Diggingtools

cuttingtools

seedlings

seed

roots

cuttings

compost andfertile soil mulch

small sticks(for marking)

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 6 - Home Nursery 5

1. Things to consider when buildinga Home Nursery

(a) Site SelectionIt's important to choose the right place for a nursery. A

site is needed where watering, checking, protecting, mulch-ing, composting and such daily maintenance becomes easier.Once the right site is chosen, we can start to build the nursery.

You can put different types of nursery in different placesaround the farm. But wherever they are, you need protection,compost, water and good seed or seedlings.

(b) ProtectionTo make a successful home nursery it's essential to have

a protected area. If your home nursery isn't protected, chick-ens, goats, etc. will damage it and eat the plants there, and allyour work will go to waste. Also, seedlings won't be availablewhen needed.

What to protect against ?

Danger Management Resources needed

Livestock fence, live fence,watcher, commu-nity agreement

wormwood, thorny plants,Crotalaria, Sesbania,citrus, bamboo, etc

Sun thatch shades,water

straw, mulch, shadetrees, green manures, etc.

Pests &diseases

integrated pestmanagementmethods

healthy soil & plants, liq-uid manure, mixed crops,rotations, companion plant-ing, ash, oil seed cake,cow's urine, neem oil, etc.

Wind mulch, thatchshades, wind-break

straw, mulch, trees (agro-forestry), green manures,etc.

Hail thatch shades,tree cover

straw, mulch, agro-forestry,green manures, etc.

1. Things to consider when buildinga Home Nursery

Dangers to the Home Nursery

sun

wind

pests anddisease

livestock

In any place where these dangersaren't protected against,

the nursery will fail

4

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 6 - Home Nursery6 7

(c) Soil and FertilityManagementTo raise healthy seedlings

in the shortest possible time,fertile soil is essential. If theforest is near, you can bring ingood, fertile soil for makingbeds and filling pots. Other-wise, livestock manure is usedfor making compost to mix withthe local soil. It is important thatcompost is well rotted, and raw oreven half decomposed compostshouldn't be used in the top soil of thenursery. Compost produced from thesweepings pit is good to use. Information about this isgiven in the Sweepings chapter.

If the soil is clay type, mix one part sand with 2 partssoil and one part compost.

(d) Water ManagementBy using waste water from the household, enough water

to irrigate the home nursery can be provided. So morning andevening, washing hands and face, or washing pots and

pans, get into the habit of saving thewaste water for the nursery.More information about howto do this is given in theWaste Water Pit chapter.In the hot season, waterthe nursery in the eve-nings or at night, notduring the day. Bymulching the beds, ormaking a thatch shade,the water used to irrigatewill last longer.

Timely Seed SowingMost seeds can be sown in the nursery in the Spring. In

lower, hotter climates this can start in the winter. At higherelevations it may be some months later. Here, using a hot bedcan mean starting in the winter even at high elevations. Infor-mation about this is given in the Hot Bed chapter. Seedlingsmust always be big enough (at least 8-12 inches) to plant outin the planting season, whenever that is.

(e) SeedTalk with other farmers to decide which species are

wanted to be grown, and where the seed can be obtained.Many types of seed can be collected from the nearby forest orfarmland. This seed should be collected at the right time, andstored well until ready for sowing. Moreinformation about this is given in the SeedSaving chapter.

Soil from the Mother TreeFor many species of tree, if soil is taken from around the

roots of the same species in the forest and mixed in beds orpots, growth in the nursery can be greatly improved. This isbecause the soil under the "Mother Tree" contains essentialmicro-organisms which help the young plants to grow, justlike mother's milk helps a baby.


Species SelectionThe method used in the nursery will depend on which

plants you want to grow.

Type ofnursery

Species grown

Seed sowndirect intonurserybeds

Seed sown intopolypots

Cuttings

Root slips

Air nursery

Hot bed

Leaf pots

Fruit nursery

Vegetables :- cauliflower, cabbage, to-mato, aubergine, chard, brocolli, etc.

Trees :- Persian lilac, neem, sea buck-thorn, ash, coffee, oak, etc. (these canthen be transplanted into pots)

walnut, mango, soapnut, butter tree,etc.

mullberry, napier grass, willow, hazel,some Ficus, etc.

comfrey, lemon grass, broom grass, etc.

Lucaena, Acacia, Sisso, Bauhinia,Sesbania, (most legumes) , papaya, treecotton, etc.

wild peach, pear, citrus, walnut, etc.

pumpkin, tomato, gourds, chilli, auber-gine, etc. for off-season growing

pumpkin, gourds, cucumber, beans, peas,etc.

The air nursery, fruit nursery, hot bed and leaf pots aredescribed in more detail in their own chapters.

2. Making nursery beds2. Making nursery beds

After choosing a site with suitable water and fertilityresources, you can start work on making the beds.

• Size of the bedsThe beds should be 4 feet wide. This allows reaching to

the centre of the bed from either side without stepping on thesoil. The beds can be aslong as you need. Theshape and length of thebeds depends on thenumber of plants youwant to grow.

• Shape of the bedsIf the nursery is on a slope, the beds should follow the

contour, i.e. they should be as level as possible. Watering andaccess should then decide how to design the beds.

Circle nurseryOne good method is to make a

nursery bed around the base of afruit tree. Then, excesswater and compostput on thenursery willgo to the tree,instead ofgoing towaste.

The widthof the bedis 4 feet

4 feet

4 feet4 feet


• Preparing the nursery soil

Dig the nursery bed to a depth of 50 cm (18 inches)and add compost, forest soil, sand, etc. as needed. Aftermaking the soil fine and loose, the beds are ready for sow-ing seed. Tree, shrub and vegetable seed can be sown.Beds for planting cuttings and root slips are made in thesame way.

3. Sowing and Planting in thehome nursery

Now, information is given about planting in differenttypes of nursery. First, how to sow seed, then plant cuttings,and after that examples are given of how to plant napier grass,lemon grass and comfrey.

Lines are made inthe bed to be ready

for sowing seed

3. Sowing and Planting in thehome nursery

(a) Sowing seed in the beds

This method is dependent on the shape and size of theseed.

• Small seed :-alder, eucalyptus, etc. This seed is very small and needs mix-ing with sand or soil to help sow evenly. Mix one part seedwith 2 parts sand or soil. Make small lines across the bed withyour finger, and sow the seed mix into this small trench. Thencover with a thin layer of fine soil.

• Large seed :-make a deeper trench across the bed. Seed is planted at twicethe depth of the seed's thickness.

• Seed planting distance :-leave a distance between seeds which is the same as the sizeof the seed.

Sow the seed twice as deep as its sizeand cover with soil

peach

oakorange

cabbage


@

12 13

how to make aHome Nurseryhow to make aHome NurseryLet's SeeLet's See

1

2

4 fingers (2-3 inches) spacebetween lines

Between seeds,leave the samespace as the size ofthe seed oak seed

example

orange seedexample

• Benefits of planting in a line :- after seeds planted in a linehave germinated, they can be recognised from weeds thatgerminate around them. This means that the bed can beweeded without damaging the new seedlings.

cabbage seedexample

After sowingseed, coverwell with finesoil. Thencover (do notsmother) witha thin, lightmulch

Belmaya's home nurseryin Gumi VDC, Surkhet,

Nepal, with variousplants shaded by thatch.

Coffee seedlings ina home nursery

sheltered bynearby shrubs.


;fpnf;fpnf;fpnf;fpnf;fpnf

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1

2

3

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

How to plant Napier grass, comfreyand lemon grass in the Home Nursery

Napier grass

Comfreycuttings from

one stem

planting thecuttings

comfreyroots

separated andcut into smallplants (slips)

ready forplanting

Lemon grass

Trimleaves &roots of

largeclump

small slipsmade

from largeclump

slipsplantedin a bedsmall "slips"

planted in a bed


slips planted in a bed

coveredwith a light

mulchslipssprouting

well

mulberrycuttings

sprouting

Lucaena plantedon the edge of the

beds provide shadeand a support for a

frame to holdthatch, as well asproducing fodder,

firewood, etc.

(b) Planting cuttings

Some species are more successful and grow faster fromcuttings than from seed.

Species growing from cuttings :- mulberry, willow,many Ficus, drumstick, grape, honey locust, etc.

Timing of cuttingsCuttings are usually made in the cold, dormant season.

Deciduous plants lose their leaves in winter, and 2-3 weeksbefore sprouting new leaves in the Spring is usually thebest time to plant these cuttings. So if plants sproutin late February, plant the cuttings in early Feb-ruary. If they sprout in mid March, plant thecuttings in late February, etc.

Selecting cuttings When selecting branches for making cuttings,

always choose healthy, undamaged and disease-free branches from last year's wood. Cut the branch cleanlyinto short lengths, and plant quickly in the nursery.

•

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 6 - Home Nursery18

Things to consider when preparing cuttingsCuttings are prepared after bringing to the nursery, and

when preparing should be cut straight at the baseand slanting at the top. Cuttings are usually

between 6 and12 incheslong. Thereshould be atleast 5 budson the cut-ting. Thetop of thecutting

should bepruned just above

the top bud with aslanting cut. If cut too

far above this bud, the wood will dry outand can cause disease to enter.

6ins.

12ins.

cut nearto thebud,

doesn'tdry out

if cut awayfrom the

bud, top willdry out

Preparing a bed for plant-ing cuttings

The bed is dug andmade fertile as for a normalnursery (see p.6 and 10). It'smost important that the soil islight and loose, not com-pacted like clay.

Dig a trench, place cuttings onone side, and fill in

Planting the cuttingsAfter cutting the branch from the tree to be propagated

and trimming it into short lengths, the cuttings should beplanted quickly into thebed to prevent them fromdrying out. Make a trenchin the bed about 4-6 inchesdeep. Place the cuttingsupright about 3 inchesapart against the side ofthe trench. Then refill thesoil into the trench, cover-ing more than half of thecuttings. The cuttingsshould be left at an angle,as in the drawing. Plantthe rest of the bed in lineslike this. The cuttingsshould be left with the

slanting top cut at a vertical angle, and facing away from thesun. By doing this water cannot settle on the top, and the sunwill not dry out the cut surface. Place a light mulch betweenthe cuttings and make thatch shades over the top. This willconserve moisture and protect from frost, hail, etc. The nurs-ery should be well protected, asthe cuttings should not betouched or moved.

dig a trench,place thecuttings andfill in the soil

more thanhalf of the

cuttingshould be

buried

1

2

plant the cuttings at an anglepointing away from the sun

19


Many types of cutting can be planted in the rainy seasonas well. At this time, cuttings can be made and planted directinto farmers' fields.

Broom grass can be planted in a nursery in the sameway, but this is done in the Summer.

(c) Planting Napier grass cuttingsThe nursery for Napier grass is pre-

pared in the same way as for other types.The Napier stem should be mature andslightly woody. If there are small aerialroots and leaves sprouting from theinternodes, these can be planted in a nurs-ery, or directly onto their permanent posi-tions in the fields. To make the cutting,make a slanting cut mid point between 2nodes. When planting in the nursery makesure the node on the cutting is buried inthe soil. If successful, roots will sproutfrom this node and the cutting will grow.

(d) Planting Lemon grass slipsTo propagate lemon grass, carefully dig out a large

clump and divide into small plants, or slips. These can then beplanted in the nursery. In the rainy season the small slips canalso be planted out directly into the fields. Before planting,the leaves should be trimmed to about 4-6 inches and theroots trimmed to about 2-3inches long. Plant as describedabove, cover with mulch andwater well.

Make small slipsfrom a large clump

Trim theleaves and

roots

4-6 inches

2-3 inches

Dig a trench, place theslips and fill in the soil


(e) Planting root slipsSome plants will grow from planting

sections of root, or root and shoots. Byplanting these in a nursery, many usefulplants can be produced in a small space.Plants which will grow from root slipsinclude comfrey, lemon grass, broomgrass and cardamon. Preparation of bedsto plant root slips is the same as othermethods described above.

Planting methodThe method for

planting root slips is thesame for plantingcuttings. Dig a trenchand line the root slipsalong one side, then fillin the soil again. Leave asmall shoot sticking upfrom the soil surface.Then cover with mulchand irrigate. Atfirst the bedshould be wellwatered, andthen give wateras needed. Adda thatch shade asrequired.

(f) Using PolypotsMany seeds can be planted directly into polypots. Others

planted into beds can then be transplanted into polypots afterthey have germinated.Planting seeds in polypots

When planting seed in polypots, the seed is buried by thesame depth of soil as is the thickness of the seed. When fillingthe pots with loose, fertile soil, leave enough space to placethe seed, then cover it with the remaining soil, as in thepicture below.

Large seed likepeach is planteddeeper, and cov-ered by more soil

Placing the polypots in the nurseryAfter seed is sown in the pots they are put into the nurs-

ery beds. A bed width of 1 metre is enough, the length isaccording to the number of pots needed. It's not necessary toprepare the soil of the beds as the good soil is already filledinto the pots. It is better if the floor underneath the pots ismade of stone or gravel.

Dig atrench and

line outroot slips

Refill the trench tobury the slips

Small seedis covered

with a thinlayer

of soil


To keep the pots upright in the bed, place stones, bricksor bamboo around the edge. In a 1 metre wide bed, you can fit18-20 regular small sized polypots (2 inch diameter) filledwith soil. If large size, (4 inch) 8-10 pots will fit in one line.

To allow more space in the bed, place a cross bar madeof bamboo every 6 lines of pots, and continue to place morepots the other side of it. When all are placed, water and placea thatch shade on top of the bed.

Cross bar placedevery 6 lines of pots Bed with

stone, bricksor bamboo on

the edge

Root pruning in the potsAs the seed germinates and the plant grows, its roots will

grow down into the soil in the pot. If the roots are allowed togrow too long and thick out of the holes in thepots, lifting the pots will be difficult and ifthe roots break the plant may die. So afterthe first month of growing, the potsshould be lifted to check for roots grow-ing out of the holes. If found, theyshould be cleanly cut and the pot re-turned to the bed. After the first pruning,pots should be checked every 2 weeks.Pruning the roots like this is good for theplant and means it can be planted easily.Not pruning can cause the plant to die.

Transplanting seedlings from bed to pot

If plants are to be transplanted frombed to pot, the seedling is ready at the4 leaf stage. First, water the bed welland then carefully lift the seedlingswith the help of a small stick.

Using the stick, make a hole inthe soil of the pot for the roots.

Making sure the roots of the seedlingare pointing downwards, place theseedling into the hole. The roots mustall be in the hole.

Finally, use the stick or fingers topress the hole closed around theroots, and give water.

For some days afterwards keep a shade over the bed, asthe seedlings need to be protected from the sun.

(g) Irrigating in the nurserySeedlings need the right amount of water to grow well.

With too little water seed will not germinate, and growingseedlings will dry out. Too much water and they will rot, andthe water is wasted. Mulch and shading reduce the amount ofwater needed by conserving the moisture. In the cold seasonit is best to water in the morning, and in the hot season waterin the evening or at night.

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 6 - Home Nursery26

(g) Thatching over the nurserySmall seedlings need protection against heavy rain,

strong sun, frost and hail, etc. On hot, sunny days shadesshould be placed over the beds from around 11am to 3pm. Theshade should be about 50cm high. In the winter, or wheneverfrost is likely, shades are needed at night, and should be about25cm high.

To protectfrom the sunin summer,high shades

are needed inthe daytime.

To protect fromfrost in the win-ter, low shadesare needed at

night(h) Weeding in the nursery

Various weeds will grow in the nursery. These needcontinuous removal. Sometimes it's difficult to distinguishweeds from sown plants. By sowing in straight lines, seed-lings can be recognised after they germinate. Everything elsewill be weeds and can be carefully pulled, dried, and mulched

back on the beds.

Mrs Devi Gurung

æ

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Mrs Devi Gurung

From Nepal, Surkhet dis-trict, Gumi - 3, Shera vil-lage, and a member of"Chintan" Women'sGroup, Mrs Devi Gurunghas made her own homenursery. Now let's readabout her experience.

I learned about makinga home nursery from theHomestead Programme(JPP) and my local Women'sGroup. Now, in my nurseryI have seedlings for produc-ing fruit, firewood, fodder and the like. I have tree cotton,coffee, Bauhinia, bamboo, Acacia, papaya, Lucaena and soon. Some seedlings are in beds, some are in polypots, accord-ing to the species of plant. So now it's easy to plant them onmy land. For fertility in the nursery and the vegetable gardenI used the compost in the sweepings pit. And the waste waterpit provides enough water for irrigation. All together there are5 to 600 seedlings. Mainly I'll be planting them at home, but Iwill also swap some with friends in the group, and give someaway as well.

27

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Read On !Read On !Subjects Related to Home Nursery

Kitchen Garden and Mixed Vegetable Growing chaptersHow to make and manage a home vegetable garden for perma-nence, ease and simplicity ? Information on doing less work formore production while also being able to produce a wide rangeof fresh vegetables is given in these chapters.

Four chapters on how to make various othernurseries :- Different types of plants need different types ofmanagement to grow them successfully. Information on how tobuild and manage the fruit nursery, air nursery, hot bed and leafpots is given in these chapters.

Integrated Pest Management chapterThere are many types of pest and disease which affect farmcrops. In this chapter information is given about preventingthese problems using local resources.

Agroforestry chapter :- information about how tointegrate trees and crops by planting and managing trees onfarmland without decreasing farm yield and producing arange of other useful products is given in this chapter.

Waste Water chapter :- If you need extra water forthe home nursery, find information in this chapter about how tomake use of household and tapstand waste water for irrigation.

Liquid Manure chapter :- Use local plants to make aliquid for fertilizer and pest control from information in this chapter.

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7 -

Hot

Bed

What is a

Bhim Regmi and his Hot Bed

Good, nutritious food is not only a need for everybody,it's a right. Many farmers grow vegetables, which helps toprovide us with many essential nutrients. But there are severalmonths when seeds won't grow because of the cold, and thekitchen garden stays empty. One method of raising vegetableseedlings even in cold weather is called the Hot Bed.

The hot bed is a way or providing extra heat to the soiland growing seedlings in the cold season, so seedlings can begrown ahead of time. This means that vegetables can begrown off season, even in cold climates. Read on, to find outhow to do this.

Hot Bed ?Hot Bed ?

k'l:tsf g+= ^ – tftf] g;{/L

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 7 - Hot Bed

HowHow

2 3

make aHot Bed ?

to make aHot Bed ?

In cold climates and at high altitudes, for several monthsover Winter and early Spring there is snow and frost, whichprevents seeds germinating and can kill young plants. For thisreason seedlings can't be grown until the time for frost haspast and the weather warms up. By making a hot bed, seed-lings can be grown even in the winter. This means that veg-etables can be produced 1 or 2 months earlier than usual.

Village-madeHot Bed

There are also economic benefits from this. If vegetablescan be raised off season, i.e. ahead of time, they can be sentearlier to the market when prices will be higher. For example,if in a normal season vegetables are 10 rupees a kilo, at off-season times the vegetables may be sold at 15-20 rupees.

Making the Hot Bed

• Choose a good site for the nursery. This must be easy toprotect and maintain, with plenty of sun.

• Dig a trench. The trench should be 1 metre wide, 50cmdeep, and as long as you need for the amount of plants tobe grown (a 1x1m hot bed is usually enough for severalfamilies to share seedlings grown for planting in their ownkitchen gardens).

• Place a 3 inch thick layer of straw or leaf litter in the bot-tom of the trench.

• On top of this place a 3 inch layer of raw, fresh cow orhorse dung, and wet well.

• On top of the dung place another 3 inch layer of straw orleaf litter.

• Then return a 3 inch layer of the soil dug from the trench.• Finally put a 3 inch layer of fine, fertile soil (which can be

made by mixing compost with the dug out soil, if it is suit-able).

WhyWhy



Materials Needed to make a Hot Bed

4 5

The seed will be sown into this layer of fine, fertile soil.In the Hot Bed we can sow seeds direct into the soil, or intoleaf pots filled with the same soil. After sowing the seed,cover the bed with a thin layer of finely chopped mulch.

Finally, the bed is covered with a sheet of plastic. Firstof all make a bamboo frame on which to hang the plastic.Bury the edges of the plastic in the soil around the bed, so aircannot get in.

bamboo

straw orleaf litter

seed

diggingand cut-ting tools

clearplastic

2 metres

rottedcompost

freshdung

1 basket 1 basket1 basket

1. Heat from the dung helps seeds to germinate

plasticsun

heatthin mulch

soil +compost

soil

straw fresh dung straw

50cm deep

2. The plastic helps to protect growingseeedlings from frost

plastic

sungerminating seedlings

seed

Inside shown through cross sectionHot BedHot Bed

Inside shown through cross section

heat



#

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6 7

how to make aHot Bed

how to make aHot BedLet's SeeLet's See

2

1

3

Species to grow in the hot bedMost types of vegetable can be grown in the hot bed.

Usually, summer crops are most suitable as these are the onesthat can be started for early planting after the winter.

season

plantingmethod

rainy sea-son plants

dry seasonplants

leaf pots

direct intothe bed

pumpkin,cucumber,gourds, beans,etc.

beans, peas,etc.

chillis, auber-gine, ladies'finger, sun-flower, etc.

tomatoes,broadleaf mus-tard, chard,lettuce, onion,cabbage, etc.

dig a trench50cm deep,

1 metre wide,and as long

as needed

In the bottom place a3 inch layer of straw

or leaf litter

On top of thisplace a 3 inchlayer of fresh

dung

rainy sea-son plants


The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 7 - Hot Bed8 9

4

6

5

7

8

9

On top ofthe dung

put anotherlayer ofstraw

On top ofthis put a

3 inchlayer of

the trenchsoil

Then put a 3inch layer offine, fertile

soil

Make linesin the soilto sow theseed into

Leaf pots withseed sown canalso be put inthe hot bed

Now coverthe wholebed with afine mulch



10

12

11

How tomaintaina Hot Bed

MaintenanceMaintenanceMake a

bamboo orstick

frame

Hang the plas-tic on this andbury the edges

in the soil

The plasticopened to weed

the nursery

From time to time the nursery needs maintaining :-

• when the sun is out the plastic can be folded back to irrigateand weed the nursery as required;

• replace the plastic in the evening, when the sun goes down;• heat from the dung warms the soil, and the plastic prevents

it quickly escaping;• when the danger of frost has passed the seedlings in the hot

bed can be transplanted into the kitchen garden

Mrs LaxmiThapa and

her Hot Bed



From time totime open the

hot bed to checkinside

At this timegiving water,

liquid manure,or weeding can

be done

Remove the plastic whenthe danger of frost is over.

Make a fence to protectagainst livestock

tomatoseedlings pumpkins

in leafpots

lettuceseedlings



When seedlings are ready

hot bed

seedlings

beds aremulched

kitchen gardenbeds

seedlings

When the danger of frost is passed, seedlings can betransplanted from the hot bed into the kitchen garden.First, water the plants well before transplanting. Waterthem again once they have been transplanted.


14Æ

Æ


Mrs TulisaraGyami

From Nepal, Surkhet dis-trict, Lekh Pharsa-2,Purano Gaun village, anda member of "Creative"Women's Group, MrsTulisara Gyami has madeher own hot bed nursery.Now let's read about herexperience.

In our village, it's diffi-cult to grow vegetables in thewinter because of the cold atthat time. The frost kills theplants. That's why I made ahot bed, to grow off season vegetables. After I made the hotbed it was easy to grow vegetables earlier in the season. Assoon as I saw the first hot bed, I knew it would workbecause the morning after the day we made it, the heat hadwarmed up the inside and it was full of steam. Outside wewere shaking with cold, but inside the plastic seedlingsstarted to germinate very quickly. I used the bed for 3 or 4successive plantings into the garden. This made it easy togrow lots of beneficial vegetables 2 months sooner thannormal.

Mrs Tulisara Gyami

15

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Read On !

Subjects Related to the Hot Bed

Many types ofvegetable foroff-season pro-duction can begrown in the hotbed. Cucumber,pumpkin, beans,etc. can also begrown off season.You can learnhow to make leafpots from thischapter.

Leaf Potschapter Mixed Vegetable

Gardeningchapter


Plants grown inthe nursery canbe mixed withall sorts of oth-ers for planting.Information on amethod produc-ing more withless work isgiven in thischapter.

Where, when,and how to plantseedlings raisedin the nurserywith less workand more pro-duction ? Infor-mation on howto make a suc-cessful kitchengarden is givenin this chapter.

Hot Bedchapter

Read On !

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8 -

Air

Nu

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What is an

It's everyone'sresponsibility toplant trees andmake the Earthgreen. But becauseof lack of skills toraise plants, manyfarmers don't dothis importantwork. They may tryto do it, but oftenthe planting isn'tsuccessful. In thischapter we discussthe question of howto raise seedlings using local resources and less work. Thereare many types of nursery to raise different types of seedlings.Here, we learn about a new and quite different type of nurs-ery, called an Air Nursery.

An Air Nursery is a bed which is lifted above the ground,so there is empty air space between the bottom of the bed andthe ground below.

Ram and Lilawati Gharti's Air Nursery

Air Nursery ?Air Nursery ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 8 - Air Nursery

☞

HowHowmake anAir Nursery ?

to make anAir Nursery ?

2 3

Materials needed to make an Air NurseryThe main purpose of the air nursery is to produce a good

shape for seedlings' roots. It is mainly useful for those plantswhich develop a fast-growing tap root.

Seedlings are usually raised from seed sown in a nurserybed, or sown direct into polypots, or transplanted from one tothe other. But it's very easy to damage the roots as youngseedlings are transplanted from one place to another. Manyplants can dry out. In polypots, roots need pruning regularly,and if this is forgotten or not possible at the right time, theroots grow into the soil and when lifted can break and dam-age the plant. The air nursery is especially for species thatgrow these fast, long roots in the nursery.

A small airnursery canbe made in

the corner ofa kitchengarden

This chapter's Author :-Mrs Belmaya RanaLocal Coordinator, Gumi,Surkhet, Nepal

When to build an air nurseryThe air nursery is built whenever normal nurseries are

started. This is normally late winter for lower, warmer areas,and later in the spring for higher, cooler areas.

Building the Air NurseryOn the following pages the building method for the air

nursery is described, with pictures and text.

WhyWhy

diggingtools seed

straw orleaf litter

fertile soil

about 3 baskets

ropenails

stakes bamboo planks sticks


@

4 5

1

2

3

4

Dig holes at 4corners of a

square and drivein 4 strong stakes

Place strong sticksacross the uprights

Place smallersticks across

Add smallersticks and strawto close all holes

6

5

8

7

Strongly secure4 planks around

the top

Fill with fertilesoil

Plant seeds in lines

Cover the seedswith soil and

cover the soil witha light mulch

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 8 - Air Nursery6 7

Let's SeeLet's See

2

1

how to make anAir Nursery

How to makeDig in 4 stakes at the corners of a square, and between

50cm and 1 metre high, so they are strong and steady.Surround the top frame with planks or bamboo, and fill

with up to 6 inches of fine, fertile soil to make the nurserybed. Dig a round pit 50 cm deep and 50 cm in diameter un-derneath the nursery. The soil from this can be used this to fillthe nursery above. This pit then has a second use when linedwith plastic to make liquid manure in, and is shaded by thenursery above. Now the air nursery is ready to sow seeds in.After sowing, cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil andthen a fine mulch, and water the bed well. Seeds will germi-nate quicker if first soaked in warm water for 1-2 days.

Species to plant inthe Air Nursery

Making thehot bed in ashady spotbehind the

house

Making thepillars and

frame to holdthe bed

Plants which produce a fast grow-ing tap root are ideal for the air

nursery, such as:-Lucaena, Acacia, Bauhinia,

Dalbergia, Sesbania,Gliricidia, Flemengia,Calliendra, tree cotton,mango, papaya, walnut,

honey locust, etc.

how to make anAir Nursery


○○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○○

○


3

8 9

4

6

5

7

8

Use straw orleaf litter to

stop soilfrom falling

through

Enclose thespace withplanks, as

shown here

Inside this,put up to 6

inches of fer-tile soil

Make thesoil fine

and even

Make lines tosow the seeds

into

how to sow theseeds in the bed


9

10 11

10

Cover withmulch andwater well

and regularly

After 3months, show-ing seedlingsgrowing well

The rootsof a

papayagrown in

an airnursery

are shortand wellbunched

The rootsof a

papayagrown in

an airnursery

are shortand wellbunched

The top of thebed is well

mulched withleaf litter

Underneathis a pit for

making liq-uid manure

Ms ChandraPun shows

the roots of apapaya

grown in theair nursery


How tomaintain

an Air NurseryMaintenanceMaintenance

12 13

Both roots shown below belong to thepapaya plant. One is grown in a

polypot and the other in an air nursery.What difference can you see ?

In apolypot

In an airnursery

The roots are in afine root ball, easy

to dig out and plant

Because of the long tap root, diggingup is difficult and damages the plant

In an airnursery

In apolypot

This is how the plants in an air nursery grow well. Fromtime to time regular maintenance of watering and weeding isneeded, and liquid manure can be used.

Things to note :-Water will dry out faster than normal in the air nursery,

so watering is needed more often. In the hot season wateronce or twice a day, and in the cold season once every 2 daysis enough.

Here's a big, community airnursery to grow many seedlings

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 8 - Air Nursery14 15

So the roots will grow down as the leaves and stemsgrow up. As the fast-growing tap roots grow down, they meetthe base of the bed and grow into the air space. Here, theywill dry up and die, which stops the deep root growing - thisis automatic root pruning. Instead, many fine roots will growhigher up.

When this is done, it becomes much easier to dig upseedlings for planting out, and roots are not damaged. Noharm is done to the seedling. Just trim off the dead roots whenit is time to plant out.

A layered sys-tem with air

nursery on topand other plants

below to fitmore into asmall space.

Sunrise Farm,Kathmandu

æ

Æ


From Nepal, Surkhet district, Gumi - 2,and members of the "Don't be Alone"Farmers' Group, MrRam Bahadur Ghartiand Mrs LilawatiGharti have madetheir own AirNursery. Now let'shear about theirexperience.

At first we didn't believe a nursery could be in the air !But then the Homestead Programme (JPP) taught us and webuilt our own. We didn't think we had the materials to buildone but managed to find bits and pieces and eventually inonly half an hour we'd built an air nursery. If we'd knownhow to build it before it would've been much easier becauseit's a much better way of growing seedlings, to dig up withoutdamaging the roots. We made the nursery taller to protect theseedlings from being eaten by the chickens and pigs. It's justright for growing seedlings for planting on our own land, andwe give to friends as well. But I've said I'm not giving anynext year so they'll have to make their own nursery. They'veagreed to that, at least.

Mr Ram Bahadur Ghartiand Mrs Lilawati Gharti

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Read On !Subjects Related to the Air Nursery

Agroforestry, LivingFence, Fruit Orchard andSoil Conservation chapters

The air nursery is for growingstrong, healthy plants. Information onhow and where to plant fruit andmulti-purpose seedlings for better pro-duction and less work is given in thesechapters.

Home Nursery chapter

Around the homestead you need to plantmany different plants for different func-tions. Information on different nurseriesto grow various types of plants is givenin this chapter.

Good benefits can be had from the information in thisbook about making and using an air nursery. However, thisinformation is also linked to other methods. For extra benefitslet's read, learn and practice from other related chapters.

Read On !

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9 -

Lea

f P

ots

What are

There are variousmethods to raise manydifferent species ofplant. Often, certainspecies cannot be trans-planted as small seed-lings, and they need tobe sown direct in thegarden or fields. Whenthese species are sown,such as beans, pump-kins, gourds and cu-cumbers, lack of carefor the small plantsmean that many die dueto pests, weeds, lack ofwater, etc., and are wasted. But by sowing in a Leaf Pot nurs-ery, the plants can get the necessary care and attention whenyoung, and be planted out when they are strong and healthy.This saves many seeds and plants from going to waste.

This method of using large leaves to make into pots,filling them with fertile soil and growing seedlings is called aLeaf Pot Nursery.

Leaf Pots ?Leaf Pots ?

Watering leaf pots in a nursery

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 9 - Leaf Pots

HowHowmakeLeaf Pots ?

to makeLeaf Pots ?

3

• For growing seedlings which can't be transplanted frombeds, such as some vegetables, fast growing trees or greenmanure seed plants, leaf pots can be used.

• Vegetables such as beans, pumpkin, cucumber, gourds, etc.cannot be transplanted bare-root, so these can be sown inleaf pots.

• Trees and green manure species, such as velvet bean,Sesbania, Crotalaria (such as sunhemp), lab lab bean, etc.,which are to be used for seed production and so need morecare and attention, can be started in leaf pots.

• When seedlings are growing in a leaf pot nursery, they canbe given better care. This helps them to grow well, andalso stops seed and seedlings being wasted.

Choose big, whole, unbroken leaves of the appropriatespecies. These leaves are rolled into a cone and stitched withbamboo pins. This will hold the soil well. After filling withfertile soil, the cones are sown with seed and covered withsoil the same as if using polypots.

WhyWhy

Materials Needed to make Leaf Pots

largeleaves

bamboostrips or rope seed

sticks

bambooposts

crowbarThis Booklet's Author :Chris Evans, advisor,Himalayan Permaculture Group, Nepalwww.designedvisions.com

2

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 9 - Leaf Pots4 5

1

2

3

1

2

3

4

Making a Standfor the Leaf Pots

1 metre

1 metre

Dig in 2 up-right stakes

Split the bam-boo and attachhorizontallybetween the 2uprights, tomake a gapwhich the leafpots can fit into.

Filled leaf potsare placed in arack made like

this

Making the Leaf Pots

twist

twist

Use leaves to fit the size of seed-ling grown. Big leaves will

make big pots for big seedlings,and small leaves for small pots

with small seedlings

Take both endsof the leaf andstart to twist

Twist the leafinto a cone

shape with oneend closed

bamboopin

Pin the leaf into acone shape as shown

here

twist

twist

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 9 - Leaf Pots6 7

Let's SeeLet's See

2

1

3

4

bamboopin

leaves formaking pots

2 potsready to fill

with soil

Put the rack for holding the leaf potsin the shade. Fill the pots with fertile

soil and place them in the rack

Leaf pot filled withfertile soil ready for

planting seed

Two seedsplanted in the

middle of the pot

how to makeLeaf Pots

how to makeLeaf Pots

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 9 - Leaf Pots

6

5

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8

How tomaintainLeaf Pots

MaintenanceMaintenanceSeed is sown in the potsand covered with a finger

width of soil

Add watercarefully

A seedstartingto grow

These plants needwatering daily

Keeping the pots while seedlings growAfter sowing seed in the leaf pots, they need to be put in

a safe place. The pots can be half buried in a nursery bed, orin a hot bed, as necessary. Another method for keeping leafpots can be called a vertical nursery. This can only be usedfor cone-shaped leaf pots. A vertical nursery doesn't use upany land and can bemade next to thehouse or on the edgeof the courtyard.Seedlings will alsobe safe from chick-ens. See p. 4 for howto build the verticalnursery.

High outputfrom a small

area. Leafpots under anair nursery,

with a pit forliquid manure

at groundlevel.

9

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 9 - Leaf Pots10

Because they are in the air, leaf pots in a vertical nurserycan dry out quickly so need small amounts of water once ortwice a day. If placed in the shade, they will need less water.

Planting the Leaf PotWhen the seedling has grown to the 4 leaf stage it can be

planted out. At the place where it is to be planted, dig a smallhole and fill with compost. Without taking the seedling out ofthe pot, plant both to-gether in the hole. Bydoing this the roots of theseedling aren't disturbed.The leaf pot should becompletely buried. Afterplanting, add mulch andwater well.

Seedlings beingplanted with

their leaf pots

Æ

æ

From Nepal, Surkhet dis-trict, Gumi - 3, Ratadadavillage, and a member of"Hariyali" women's group,Mrs Vishnumaya Shris hasmade her own leaf pots. Nowlet's hear what she says.


Mrs VishnumayaShris

Mrs Vishnumaya Shris

If we plant various typesof seed direct onto the landmany can die, or not growwell. So we make leaf pots,filling them with soil andsowing them with seeds suchas pumpkin, cucumber, beans, cow pea, bitter gourd, bottlegourd, etc., especially the climbing vegetables. We keep thepots in a vertical rack made from bamboo. We tie split bam-boo in between 2 upright posts which leaves a gap perfect forholding the leaf pots. The pots need watering every day.Seedlings grow faster than if sown direct in the field, and areready to plant out 2-3 weeks after sowing. We found thatthese plants suffer less from insect pests than others, perhapsbecause they're stronger. We share these skills in the group. Iteach to some, and learn from others.

11

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Read On !Subjects Related to Leaf Pots

This book provides enough information to be able tomake and grow plants in your own leaf pots. However, thisinformation is also linked to other methods. For extra benefitslet's read, learn and practice from other related chapters.

Mixed VegetableGardening

chapter


Leaf pots arevery useful insuccessful veg-etable gardening.Information aboutthis and othereasy methods forhome-producinghealthy vegetablesat low cost isgiven in thischapter

With less weed-ing, watering andother work, andharvesting vari-ous types ofvegetables from3 weeks afterplanting, lastingup to 6 months.Information onthis easy tech-nique is given inthis chapter

Hot Bedchapter

This chapterdescibes howto use leaf potseedlings alongwith othervarieties in ahot bed togrow off sea-son vegetables

Leaf Pot chapter

Read On !

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10 -

Pro

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an Introductionan Introduction

'Fruit is the elixir of life''Fruit is the elixir of life'

Producing Fruit at Home Producing Fruit at Home

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 10 - Producing Fruit at Home2 3

Did you know ...?• The reason why

people often like sweet food isbecause of the need for vitamin "C".Fruit has lots of vitamin C, and ripe fruit is usu-ally sweet, so we are programmed to like sweet things.That's why people like sugar products. But of course,there's no vitamin C in sugar !

• Eating a piece of fruit after a meal helps the intestine todigest the meal.

• Fruit is tasty, juicy and nutritous, and contains manyessential vitamins and minerals for our bodies.

• It is one of our responsibilities to plant fruit trees. That'swhy even if we only have a small piece of land, many ofus are keen to plant fruit trees.

In this Farmers' Handbook there is information aboutvarious methods of producing fruit. In this volume, Near theHouse (2), are chapters about the Fruit Nursery, Grafting,Budding and Stone Grafting. In the next volume, The Fields,are chapters about Air Layering, Top Grafting, Planting FruitTrees and Integrated Fruit Orchards.

This chapter gives additional information to help theother technical chapters be more effective. They are all con-nected together to give simple methods to successfully pro-duce more fruit at home.

To grow improved fruit varieties, it's possible to join local,wild varieties with their improved relatives. Information aboutwhich species to join, when to join them and which method isused to join them is given in the chart on the next 2 pages.

Grafting

Budding

Air Layering

Top Grafting

Cuttings

StoneGrafting

Grafting

Budding

StoneGrafting

Cuttings

Top Grafting

Air Layering

After this, on page 7, is information about the otherchapters related to fruit production.

Information about ImprovedFruit Varieties

Information about ImprovedFruit Varieties

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 10 - Producing Fruit at Home

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1 32The fruits you wantto produce are in

these columns

The localspecies (root-stock) to join

them to

Here is information about which techniques to use, andwhen to use them (Northern Hemisphere)

Species of scion(branch)

Drawing Grafting Top Grafting

Peach

Plum

Almond

Apricot

Walnut

Apple

Pear

Citrus spp.

Persimon

Mango

Guava

Grape

Cherry

wild peach

wild peachor plum

wild peach

wild peachor apricot

wild walnut

wild apple

wild pear

Trifolate

local persimon

wild mango

guava

grape

wild cherry

Feb-MarchAug-Sept

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

March-April

Feb-MarchAug-Sept

Feb-MarchAug-Sept

Oct-Nov

Feb-March

June-July(stone grafting)

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Feb-March

Budding AirLayering

Cuttings StoneGrafting

June-July

June-July

June-July

June-July

June-July

June-July

June-July

June-July

June-July

Feb-April

Feb-April

Feb-April

Feb-April

Feb-March

May-June

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 10 - Producing Fruit at Home6 7

Subjects Related to Fruit ProductionAn easy way to irrigate fruit trees

Bury a porous clay pot about50cm away from a newly

planted fruit seedling. Whenthis is filled with water, it

soaks out of the pot directlyto the root zone of the seed-

ling. Instead of a pot, thehardened shell of a bottlegourd can be used, with a

small hole made in the base.

bottle gourd

clay pot

fruit seedling

stone mulch

These chapters give different techniques to growfruit trees successfully in the villages.

Fruit Nursery chapterHow to grow root stock from local wild fruit seedfor grafting and budding on your own land.

Grafting & Budding chaptersProduce high quality and quick fruiting seedlingsat home with these 2 methods.

Stone Grafting chapterGraft improved mango onto local wild treesquickly and easily at home.

Air Layering chapterProduce good quality citrus, guava, lichi, pome-granate, etc. with this easy method.

Top Grafting chapterEasy methods to graft wild trees growing in thefields and forests to make productive fruit trees.

Fruit Tree Planting chapterHow to plant out high value fruit trees for bestproduction using local resources.

Integrated Fruit Orchard chapterFruit and other multi-purpose trees in an orcharddesigned to give maximum yields quickly.

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To bind grafted fruit treesplastic tape is usually used. But MrLal Bahadur Buddha, a Farmers'Leader from Jajarkot district,Danagaun-2, Kalpat village in Ne-pal, has found a method whichdoen't need plastic for grafting,budding and top grafting work. Hevery carefully strips a thin layerfrom the surface of the Sisal plant (Agave spp.) and uses thisinstead to bind scion to rootstock (see picture). Using plasticyou need to be careful to cut it off after 3-4 months or it willstrangle the seedling. Not so with sisal - because it is organicit degrades and falls off by itself.

Lal Bahadur has for manyyears played a leading role infruit improvement in hisdistrict. He has even inventeda new method to graft walnut(see the Grafting chapter).When experts from the Horti-culture Station in Kathmandusaid that it is only possible toget a 25% success rate withwalnut, Lal was getting 80%with his own method. Hespends his time teaching otherfarmers his methods.

Farmers' Innovation -Plastic or Organic ?

Farmers' Innovation -Plastic or Organic ?

Lal B. BuddhaLal B. Buddha

'wisdom' has gotsomething aboutlong time, atleast a genera-tion, experienceto it - farmerinnnovationmay be better orknowledge or ?

Chapter 11 - Fruit Nursery

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11 -

Fru

it N

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What is a

The fruit nursery is a place where local wild fruit seedis sown to grow seedlings. This means selecting from healthy,disease free species that grow wild or on farms, such as wildpear, peach, walnut, apple, etc. Branches (scion) or buds fromgood fruiting trees, which must also be healthy and diseaseresistant, can then be joined onto these seedlings while still inthe fruit nursery. This will produce high quality fruit treeswith strong, local roots. The work of joining 2 compatibleplants together in the fruit nursery is called grafting or bud-ding. Information about these methods is given in their ownchapters.

Fruit Nursery ?Fruit Nursery ?

Local fruit nursery, Panchkatya, Jajarkot

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 11 - Fruit Nursery

This Chapter's Author :

HowHowmake aFruit Nursery ?

to make aFruit Nursery ?

2

• To grow im-proved fruit treesin your ownvillage.

• To make use ofthe local wildfruit trees.

• To grow fruittrees suited to thelocal climate andsoil.

• To be able toobtain fruit treeswhenever youneed.

• To save the costof buying fruittrees.

• To grow fruit trees which produce quickly.• To be able to generate income from local resources.

1. Time to build the nurseryThe best time to build the fruit nursery is in the Autumn

(October in the Northern hemisphere)

2. Materials neededThese are the materials needed to build a fruit nursery:

• seed : collect good viable seed of local, wild fruit trees,such as peach, plum, apricot, cherry, walnut, pear, etc.

• digging tools;• biomass : a basket each of well rotted compost, semi de-

composed biomass, and fresh green leaves.

Seven types of local plum

WhyWhy

Materials Needed to make a Fruit Nursery

seed diggingtools crowbar

semi-decomposedbiomass or dried

leaf litter green leaveswell rotted

compost

one basket one basketone basket

3

Chris Evans, advisor,Himalayan Permaculture Group, Nepalwww.designedvisions.com

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Site SelectionIt's important to choose the right place for a nursery. A

site is needed where watering, checking, protecting, mulchingand composting and such daily maintenance will be easy.

Digging the bedThe bed for planting the seed can be as long as you need,

depending on the number of seeds you have to sow. First, diga trench about 6 inches wide and 6-8 inches deep, keeping theremoved soil close by. Then with a crow bar or pick axe,loosen up another 6-8 inches of soil in the bottom of thetrench, without removing it from the trench.

Now place a 2 inch layer of green leaves in the bottomof the trench. On top of this put a 2 inch layer of the soil dugout of the trench. Next, put a 2 inch layer of half decomposedor dried leaf litter. Cover this layer with another 2 inch layerof soil. Then put a 2 inch layer of the well rotted compost.Now put all the remaining soil that was dug out of the trenchto make a mound above the trench. The trench has now beenrefilled with the soil, green leaves, leaf litter and compost.

Cross section to show the fruitnursery trench

2-3 inches betweenlines of seed

fertile soil

seed

compost

soil

semi rotted compost

soil

green leaves

loosened soil

6-8

inch

es d

eep

6-8

inch

es d

e ep

trench 6-8 inches wide

mulch


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how to make aFruit NurseryLet's SeeLet's See how to make aFruit Nursery

21

36 7

Sowing seed in the nurseryNow the local, wild fruit seed, such as wild pear, apple,

peach, plum, apricot, walnut, etc. can be sown in the nursery.Along the heaped up bed make 2 shallow grooves 3-4 inchesapart, and place the seed into these grooves. The distancebetween each seed in the line should be the same as the sizeof the seed itself. Cover the seed with soil to a depth which isthe same thickness of the seed, and then cover with a 2-3 inchthick layer of mulch. For the mulch, use leaf litter, straw,pulled weeds, etc.

Sow the seeds asshown here.

distance between 2 seeds is the thickness of oneseed

3 in

chdi

stan

ce

distance between 2 seeds is the thickness of oneseed

3 in

chdi

stan

ce

spade

pick

leaf litter green leaves

compost

hook

Materialsneeded to makea fruit nursery

Size of thetrench

6-8 inchesdeep

6-8 inches wide

2m lo

ng

soil removedfrom trench

Dig out the trenchand leave the soil at

the edge


4

6

5

7

8

9

10

8 9

Dig down another 6-8inches to loosen the soilwithout taking it out of

the trench

Put a basket of greenleaves in the trench

Cover with a layer ofthe soil removed from

the trench

Then put a layer ofleaf litter

Cover this withmore soil

Now put in thecompost

Put in the rest of thesoil with compost to

make a mound


1211

13

10 11

How tomaintain

a Fruit NurseryMaintenanceMaintenance

Peachseed

For sowingdistance seeearlier p.6

Put onmulch

After sowing the seed the nursery needs good mainte-nance. Seed sown in the Autumn will germinate the nextSpring. In the months in between, the nursery should be wa-tered deeply every 2-3 weeks if it doesn't rain. This will helpthe seed to germinate well. After the seeds have germinated,the mulch helps to conserve moisture in the soil, and keepsdown weeds. Even so, irrigate and weed the nursery asneeded. Add more mulch if needed. All this helps the seed-lings to grow well.

Seedlings which germinate in the Spring may be bigenough to graft or bud the next Winter. If the seeds germinateslowly, or if weeding and irrigation is not done, the seedlingswill be a year slower to reach the size needed for grafting andbudding.

Graftedseedlings

completedin the nurs-ery (arrows

point towhere thegraft is)

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 11 - Fruit Nursery12 13

Work needed while seedlings are grow-ing in the nursery

irrigation : the seedlings need water regularly.weeding : pull up any weeds that grow and use

them as mulch.mulch : keep a thick mulch on the bed

Pinching(removing the leaves)

In the late summerany lower leaves or smallbranches should be re-moved with secateurs ora sharp hook, and thegrowing tip also cut off.This makes a good shapeof the seedling ready forgrafting or budding. Bytaking out the tip theseedling will grow fatterrather than taller, andtaking out the side leavesand branches lowerdown leaves a clean stemwhich is easier to graft orbud. This work of pick-ing leaves and tips iscalled pinching.

Seedlings growingin the bed

One seed-ling

Its tip is removedand lower leavespicked (pinched)

Tip pinched

Lowerleaves

pinched

This seed-ling is

complete

Pinching

2

1

3

Pinching


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Subjects Related to the Fruit Nursery

This book gives enough information to be able to makeand manage your own Fruit Nursery. However, this informa-tion is also linked to other methods. For extra benefits let'sread, learn and practice from other related chapters.

FruitNurserychapter

Grafting & Bud-ding chapters

Fruit Tree Plant-ing chapter

Integrated FruitOrchard chapter

To grow good fruit root stock you needto select good, healthy trees to produce seed.More information on seed saving is given inthis chapter.

Seed SavingChapter

Read On !Read On !

Seed Saving Chapter

æ

Æ

Mr Dhan BahadurMidun


From Nepal, Surkhet dis-trict, Lekh Pharsa-2,Purano Gaun village, localteacher Mr Dhan BahadurMidun has made his ownfruit nursery. Now let'sread about his experience.

After the Homestead Pro-gramme started work in ourvillage I learned about fruitnurseries, and made one on myown land. I started by growing100-200 seedlings, and have gradually increased that numberwith experience. It was difficult at first without the knowl-edge but now I find it easy. Though we don't have any irriga-tion here, by using lots of compost and mulch the need forwater was much reduced, and what we saved in the wastewater pit has been enough. I've sold, exchanged and givenaway seedlings I raised here to friends in our village. I've alsoprovided other villages up to 2 days' walk away with seed-lings. Doing this I'm starting to understand that by applyingwork and investing in the right place at the right time, manybenefits can be gained.

Dhan Bahadur Midun

14

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2"

Grafting & Budding chapters

Integrated Fruit Orchard chapter

Fruit Tree Planting chapter

After raising good seedlings in the fruitnursery, if they're not planted well all thework can go to waste. Information on moreproductive planting is given in this chapter.

Plant fruit trees with various other multi-purpose trees to give more and quicker ben-efits for less work. This is the IntegratedOrchard, and you can read about it in thischapter

Local peach, pear, walnut, etc. sown in afruit nursery can be grafted with cuttings orbuds of compatible improved trees after 1 to2 years. In these chapters, learn how to dothis method at home.

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What is

Grafting ?Grafting ?

It can be difficult for farmers to earn their livelihoodsfrom growing only grain crops. That’s why it’s good to learnnew methods which increase production to farm our ownland. One method is by making a nursery to grow improvedfruit tree seedlings. This means you can grow tasty and nutri-tious fruit on your own land, and at the same time sell or tradeextra production to earn cash. There are many methods ofjoining local wild fruit tree rootstock to high producing im-proved varieties. One of those methods, which is detailed inthis chapter, is called grafting.

Grafting is a method of joining the cutting (scion) of animproved variety of fruit tree onto the root (rootstock) of alocal compatible variety.

Grafted peach trees ready for planting, Surkhet, Nepal

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 12 - Grafting

This Chapter's Author:Mr Bhuvan KhadkaHimalayan Permaculture Group,Surkhet, Nepal

Why do Grafting ? to doGrafting ?

2 3

• Grafted trees produce fruit quicker. A tree grown from seedmay take 8-10 years to fruit, but agrafted tree will only take 2-4 years.

• A tree grown from seed may producepoor tasting fruit. Grafting is done toimprove the taste and size of the fruit.

• A tree grown from seed may notproduce fruit the same as the treethe seed came from (mother tree).But a grafted tree will be just asgood as the tree the cutting (scion)came from.

• A grafted tree will continue to givethe same quality fruit for many years.

• Grafted fruit trees can be sold togive an income to the household.

• By producing your own seedlingsand fruit, you save money.

• Seedlings can be produced locally,saving time in searching for theright fruit trees to plant.

Cutting the root-stock in prepara-tion for grafting

Benefits of Grafting

How does grafting work ?All plants have tiny channels which take water and nu-

trients up to the leaves and down again. These channels areinside the bark but outside the woody part of the stem. Theyform a greenish band around the stem called the cambium.

WhyMaterials Needed to do Grafting

plasticcutting (scion)from a good

fruit tree

local, wildrootstock

secateurs

graftingknife or

sharp tool

HowHow

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 12 - Grafting4 5

13

2

1

To succeedat grafting,

thecambium of

the scionand the

rootstockmust be ex-

actly aligned

Cross section of thewood to be grafted

Scion

Rootstock

wood

bark

cambium(green)

wood

bark

Close upof

cambiumto be

joined

In a successful graft, the channelsin the cambium carrying nutrientsand water from the rootstock to thescion and back are continuous, not

broken.

Grafting Method

Preparing the rootstock for grafting

• A local, wild fruit tree seedling grownin the nursery or naturally in the forestis called the rootstock.

• For grafting, the rootstock is ideally thethickness of a pencil, but it can be alittle thinner or thicker than this (5-10mm).

• Leaves and branches should be pre-vented from growing from the rootstockon the first 4-6 inches from the ground.These can be carefully pinched off fromtime to time.

root-stock


2

3

4

3

1

2

6 7

Selecting the scion for grafting• To graft onto a local, wild rootstock, the branch cutting

from a good fruiting tree is needed.• This branch cutting is called a scion.• The scion sould be from a healthy, disease-free tree that

gives good fruit.• A one year old branch should be used as scion wood.• If the scion is to be brought from far away, a whole branch

should be cut. The cut end should be covered with mossand packed in sacking. Any buds should be unbroken, andthe cutting should not be exposed to the sun.

Cutting the scion

• There should be 3-5 live buds on thescion, which should be cut at a slant,just above the top bud.

Cutting the rootstock andgrafting the scion

• The way to prepare rootstock is described inthe Fruit Nursery chapter.

• On the day before grafting, water the root-stock well and mulch thickly.

• Using a sharp knife or similar tool, make a 1inch long slanting cut through the rootstock1-3 inches from the ground. The face of thecut should be completely flat.

Preparedrootstock

• Trim the scion so it has 3-5 buds. The scion should not bethicker than the rootstock.

• The scion should be the same diameter as the rootstock ifpossible. It can be thinner than the rootstock, but not thicker.

• Make a 1 inch long slanting cut atthe base of the scion, the samelength as the cut on the root-stock. The face of the cutshould be completely flat.

• Half way up the slantingcuts of both rootsock andscion cut a small nick intothe face of the cut edge (see also p.10, photo5 to 8).

• Join rootstock and scion together by insertingthe nicks on opposing faces of the rootstockand scion into each other.

• Push rootstock and scion together so that thecambium layers are in close contact at leaston one side of the join (if rootstock is largerthan scion), if not both sides (if rootstock andscion are the same size).

• The scion and rootstock should be held to-gether by the opposing nicks beinginterlinked with each other.

length ofscion

slanting cut

The scion shouldbe cut just above

the top bud toprevent too muchwood drying out


Let's SeeLet's See

2

1

3

8 9

3

1 2

6

4

5

5

Then wind theplastic tightly

upwards

Binding the GraftBind the joined rootstock and scion together so no air or

water can enter the wound.

Start bindingfrom belowthe wound

Bind theplastictightly

around thestem

See an alternative to using plastic on p.18

Windthe plas-

tic toabove

the join,then

wind itdownagain

Bind downto where the

plasticstarted

Tuck the end ofthe plastic so it

points downwards

Measuring a localrootstock 3-4 inches

from the base

Cut at themeasured place

Measure the scionfrom the good

fruiting tree to fitthe rootstock

how to doGrafting

how to doGrafting


4

6

5

7

8

9

10

11

10 11

Make a slanting cut 1 inchlong on the base of the scion.

Make a small nickabout half waydown the face.

Hold the scion in themouth to prevent

drying out.

Make a nick inthe same place

on the root-stock

Make thesame 1

inchslantingcut on

the root-stock

Rootstockwith nickclose up

Push the scionand rootstock

together so thatthe nicks on eachface insert into

each other.

Binding the graft withplastic is shown on p.8

Carefully bind thegraft tightly so no airor water can get in to

the wound.

This scionshown

sprouting2 weeks

after beinggrafted.


12

13

14

12 13

21

A stone mulch has beenplaced around a

seedling grafted directlyin the fields. ( )

Grafted seedlingsshown in the nursery.An arrow marks the

bound graft. ( )

A shoot sprouting from therootstock of the graft. This

should be pinched off.

The graft scar can be seen after plastic is removed

A graftedseedling showngrowing well inits permanent

place.

If the root-stock is

bigger thanthe scion.

It’s OK to graft asmall scion onto alarger rootstock.

One side of the cambiumof root stock and scion

must match exactly.


}

How tomaintain

a grafted seedling

14 15

Care needed after grafting

• The grafted seedlings need fencingagainst livestock, and should not betouched.

• They should be protected fromstrong sun, wind, hail, and heavyrain. Make a 50cm high thatchto place over them, and thenursery should be in a shelteredsite.

• The seedlings need regularwatering to keep the soil moist.

• After 4 months, when the scionhas sprouted well, the plasticcan be carefully removed.

Withoutprotection,

work iswasted

PinchingAny leaves or branches sprouting below the graft (from

the rootstock) should be pinched off with the fingers, other-wise they take valuable water and nutrients meant for abovethe graft. This is called pinching.

If the graft is unsuccessful, a single sprout from therootstock can be allowed to grow. This can be used to graftanother scion again next year.

Citrus root-stock is

grafted in theAutumn andkept underplastic until

Spring.

Compatible species and timing of grafting

Type of scion

1. Improvedpeach, plum,apricot, almond

2. Soft shelled walnut

3. Pear

4. Orange

5. Persimon

6. Apple

7. Cherry

Type of rootstockMonth

(NorthernHemisphere)

all can be graftedonto wild peach,plum or apricot

Jan./Feb., Sept.

local walnut March, April

wild pear Jan./Feb., Sept.

trifoliate Oct./Nov.

local persimon Jan./Feb.

wild apple,crabapple

Jan./Feb., Sept.

wild cherry Jan./Feb.

MaintenanceMaintenance


1

2

3

4

16 17

Lucaena

lemongrass

marigold coriander

comfrey

onion

comfrey

lemongrass

Grafted seedlingsshould be

protected fromlivestock

Around thefruit seedling,

plant com-panion plants

Lucaena

Grafted seedlingsshould be given

water and compost

Any leaves orbranches sprout-ing from belowthe graft should

be removed

These branchesare removed

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 12 - Grafting18

1

3

2

The method for grafting walnut is slightlydifferent to that given above. Let’s see :

Make a pointon the scion,

with one edgeslightly

longer thanthe other

How the scion is joinedonto the rootstock

shortedge

on thelowerside

longedge

on theupperside

When therootstock andscion fit per-

fectly, cut off therootstock abovethe graft. Thenbind it as in thenormal method.

This is done in the spring

The skin of the sisal (Agave) can beused to bind the graft. The skin is re-moved as shown here. More detailsabout this are given in chapter 10 -

Fruit Introduction

scionscion

root-stockroot-stock

æ

Æ


From Jajarkot district, Dhime -7, Dharnasi village in Nepal, MrShanta Bahadur Pun has doneplenty of grafting. Now let'sread about his experiences.

Shanta Bahadur Pun

After I learned grafting Ipracticed at home with a smalllocal, wild peach nursery. Ontothem I grafted improved peach,plum, apricot and almond. On such a small piece of land thisgave such a high production, and you can literally eat thefruits of this success within 3 years! In the spring, shades overthe beds are very important - this stops the hot sun from dry-ing out the newly grafted seedlings. Water needs to be givencarefully, at ground level. If you water from above, water canget inside and ruin the graft, and it can also shake the seed-lings and so break the graft. The cutting tools need to be sharpand clean - like in any operation. I’ve succeeded using justthe local ashi (hook), I don’t need a posh grafting knife. Atfirst the other farmers didn’t believe that it would work. Igrafted plants on my own farm, and sold them. Then theybelieved me. Nowadays all the farmers have small or largenurseries on their land.

Mr ShantaBahadur Pun

19

Gri

hast

hi C

omm

unic

atio

nsSubjects Related to GraftingThis book provides enough information for you to be

able to do your own grafting on fruit trees. However, thisinformation is also linked to other methods. For extra benefitslet's read, learn and practice from other related chapters.

Fruit Nursery chapterHow to grow root stock from local wild fruitseed for grafting and budding on your own land.

Integrated Fruit Orchard chapterInformation on how to plant fruit trees with variousother multi-purpose trees to give more and quickerbenefits for less work is given in this chapter.

Fruit Tree Planting chapterAfter raising good seedlings in the fruit nursery,if they're not planted well all the work can go towaste. Information is given in this chapter.

Read On !Read On !

Stone Grafting, Budding, Top Graftingand Air Layering chaptersInformation about various simple methodsof growing improved fruit varieties at home forplanting on the farm are given in these chapters.

Th

e F

arm

ers'

Ha

nd

bo

ok

- "

Nea

r T

he

Ho

use

2"

, C

ha

pte

r 1

3 -

Bu

dd

ing

What is

Fruit trees whichhave grown from seedmay not give goodfruit. There are vari-ous other ways tomake sure that treesfruit well. Dependingon the variety andseason there are differ-ent methods to im-prove fruit trees. Oneway is by taking alocal, wild fruit treeand transferring a budfrom a tasty, good andheavy-fruiting treeonto it. This is calledBudding. Budding isjust one of the tech-niques used to im-prove fruit trees so that they give more production.

This chapter gives information about where, when andhow to do budding, so you can do it at home to produceyour own good quality fruit seedlings.

Budding ?Budding ?

A one year old buddedpeach seedling

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 13 - Budding

HowHowdo Budding ?to do

Budding ?

2 3

Materials Needed todo Budding

• the tree produces good fruit• the tree fruits sooner• you don't need to wait for

other seasons and methods• to be able to produce good

trees in your own time

Benefits of Budding• to use time efficiently• to save having to buy fruit

seedlings• to increase farm production;• to develop new skills• to increase production from

less land

knife

plastic

sharp hooklocal, wildseedling

(rootstock)buds from agood fruiting

tree

1. Selecting bud wood for budding

The first thing to do in budding is to select good budsfrom the tree you want to propagate. If this is far away thenthe whole branch containing the bud should be cut andbrought. Don't bring abranch which doesn'thave good buds on it.Good buds can comefrom the current year'sgrowth, or from lastyear's wood.

2-3 goodbuds

The moresprouting budson a single leafaxil, the better.

Selecting buds froma good fruiting tree

When to do Budding ?Budding should be done in the early Summer when new

shoots are sprouting and sap is rising the most.

WhyWhy


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4 5

2. Cutting the selected bud

Make a cut throughthe bark to the woodabout half an inch abovethe selected bud. Takingcare not to damage thebud, cut from half aninch below the bud,upwards to the first cutas shown in the picture.

Carefully separate anywood that has been cut fromthe bark and bud (see thepicture at the top of the nextpage). Now the bud is ready.Put the bud in a bowl of water,so it can be carried withoutdrying out.

3. Preparing the bud

If there are leaves onthe budwood, thesecan be trimmed asshown here.

Carefully removeany woodfrom the bud

throw thisbit away

Now this bud isready to graft.

4. Preparing the rootstock

A compatible local, wild variety of seedling is called arootstock. The rootstock shouldn't have any disease orwounds. The rootstock should be prepared before the bud iscut, to save time. How to prepare rootstock is described in theFruit Nursery chapter. The rootstock seedling should be wellwatered and mulched the day before it is to be budded.

First make a horizon-tal cut in the bark, as

deep as the wood

Then make a verticalcut from the centre of

the first cut, downabout an inch, to makea "T" shaped wound.


Let's SeeLet's See

6 7

1

5

4

3

2

1 32

5. Joining the bud to the rootstock

To graft the bud from the improved tree, use your knifeto prise open the T-shaped wound, and slowly insert thebudwood downwards into the opening. The budwood shouldfit exactly into the inside of the T. If there is a small piece ofthe budwood left sticking out above the horizontal cut in therootstock, this should be cut off.

Cut off any budwood left outside

Part 6, binding the bud with plastic, iscontinued after the colour pictures .....

Selectedbud

Showing theline of thecut to re-

move the bud

Make the first horizontal cut halfan inch above the selected bud

Second cutfrom halfan inchbelow

Cut upwardsto remove

the bud

The removed budwith wood inside

how to doBudding

how to doBudding


6

11

10

9

8

7

8 9

Put the bud in abowl of water

Trim offhalf theleaves

from thebud

Woodremoved

Remove the wood from theinside of the bud to leave only

the bark

Then cutvertically

through thebark

First make a hori-zontal cut through

the bark

This leaves awound like the

English "T"

The bud tobe joined is

ready


12

1615

1413

10 11

1 42

65

3 Nowstart tojoin thebud and

rootstock

Prize open thebark and slowlyinsert the buddown into the

wound

The bud shouldbe inside thewound, flat

against the innerwood

See page 14 for an organic alternative to plastic

Now carefullybind the bud with

this plastic

Leave the budsticking out from

the plastic

6. Binding the bud

After inserting the bud use an inch-wide strip of thin plasticto bind it fairly tightly onto the rootstock. Cover the wound,

binding from the bottom to the top and back down again.

Don't cover the bud andleaves with the plastic,

leave them outside.

Finally, bind the tail ofthe plastic so it pointsdown to allow any rain

to run off

See page 14 for an organic alternative to plastic


1 2

How tomaintain

a budded seedlingMaintenanceMaintenance

12 13

How to tell if the budding is successful

Two weeks after the budding is done, gently pull at the leafstems on the bud. If the leaf comes away easily from the

base, even by just touching it, the budding has been success-ful. If the leaf does not come away even with a stronger tug,

and slowly dries up, then the budding has probably failedThen you can try again by grafting in the winter.

Removing the plastic

Whether the budding is successful ornot, the plastic needs to be gentlycut and removed after 3-4 weeksotherwise it will "strangle" thegrowing seedling. This can kill evena successful bud.

Things to do after budding is complete

Give plenty of water to the seedling immediately afterbudding. Keep the budded plants well mulched. Make athatch to shade the seedlings from the hot sun. Water and

weed the seedlings as necessary. Care-fully remove any buds that sproutbelow the newbud. In the autumnafter the buddingwas done, carefullycut off the top ofthe seedling justabove the new bud.

Planting the Seedling

If the seedling is deciduous (that is it drops its leaves inwinter) the budded seedling can be planted out in late win-ter. If the plant is evergreen it is usually planted in the sum-mer. A good place to plant such a valuable seedling is in anold pit latrine. Other-wise, dig a pit onemetre deep and onemetre wide, fill it withcompost and soil, andplant the seedlingthere. Full informationabout this is given inthe chapter Fruit TreePlanting.

Companionplants

water compost

mulch

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 13 - Budding14

An easy way to irrigate fruit trees

Bury a porous clay pot about 50cmaway from a newly planted fruitseedling. When this is filled withwater, it soaks out of the pot di-

rectly to the root zone of the seed-ling. Instead of a pot, the hardenedshell of a bottle gourd can be used,with a small hole made in the base.

Bottlegourd

clay pot

fruit seedling

stone mulch

Instead of PlasticYou can also use the skinof the sisal leaf (Agave) tobind the bud. As shownhere, carefully peel theskin from the leaf. See

chapter no: 10, Introduc-ing Home Fruit Produc-

tion for more details

æ

Æ

Mr Lal BahadurBudhathoki


From Nepal, Jajarkot district,Khalanga - 5, Pokhara village,Mr Lal Bahadur Budhathoki hasdone plenty of budding. Nowlet's hear about his experience.

Lal B. Budhathoki

I first learned about buddingfrom the Homestead Programme(JPP) and came home and startedbudding improved peach onto ourlocal, wild peaches. Budding is donein late June, and when other localfarmers saw, they were amazed that you could transfer just abud from one tree to another. I budded peach onto wild peach,and pear onto our local wild pear, but this wasn't as good as thepeach. Now the local Farmers' Group has started to do it. Eve-ryone thinks it's great, and it's cheap too. The budding is donein late June, and then the top is cut off in the Autumn to allowthe bud to grow on up. If it fails, it doesn't affect the tree andyou can graft again in the Winter. Also, if grafting is unsuccess-ful in the Winter you can do budding on the same plant in theSummer. Either way the seedling isn't wasted. We don't usefancy grafting knives - just a razor blade and ashi (local cuttinghook) are enough. The plastic is to keep out air and water, butneeds removing quickly, within the month.

15

Gri

hast

hi C

omm

unic

atio

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Fruit Nursery chapterHow to grow root stock from local wild fruit seed athome for grafting and budding on your own land.

Integrated Fruit Orchard chapterInformation on how to plant fruit trees with variousother multi-purpose trees to give more and quickerbenefits for less work is given in this chapter

Fruit Tree Planting chapterAfter raising good seedlings in the fruit nursery,if they're not planted well all the work can go towaste. Information is given in this chapter.

Agroforestry chapterPlanting trees on farmland can bring farmers manybenefits. But you can't plant any type of tree, noranywhere. This chapter gives information on howto plant trees without affecting farm yield

Grafting, Top Grafting, Stone Grafting& Air Layering chapters

Here is more information about various simplemethods of growing improved fruit varieties athome for planting on the farm.

Read On !Read On !

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What is

In the tropics andsub-tropics, many farmerslike to plant mango trees.Demand for good fruit isincreasing, and farmersare understanding thebenefits of this. Farmerswant to plant mangos, butoften the seedlings aren'tavailable, or if they are,they're expensive. Butthere is an easy way ofproducing good qualitymango seedlings. This iscalled Stone Grafting.Using this method,mango seedlings can begrown quickly andcheaply at home, produc-ing good quality fruit. Grafted trees also are fast to producefruit. This means that poorer farmers can easily plant mangoswithout going into debt, and get faster benefits.

In this booklet you can learn how to do stone grafting forquick and easy mango production at home.

Grafted mango in fruit, Nepal

Stone Grafting ?Stone Grafting ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 14 - Stone Grafting

WhyWhy HowHowdo StoneGrafting ?

2 3

Materials Needed to do Stone Grafting

to doStone Grafting ?

Nowadays most mango grafting is done using the"Inarching" method. But this takes 2-3 years to produce a seed-ling, which is why mango seedlings are so expensive. Also, inNepal, the skilled grafters live in the south, so it is difficult toobtain mango seedlings in the poorer northern hill districts.Transport is expensive, and many seedlings can die during thejourney in the hot summer, when they are distributed. Seedlingscostings 2 or 3 times as much after they have been transportedfrom the nursery into more remote hill districts.

So there are many benefits from using stone grafting toproduce mango seedlings :-

This Booklet's Author :Chris EvansAppropriate Technology Asia, Nepal

• quick production - while it takes 2-3 years to produce aseedling for distribution with inarching, it takes 2 monthswith stone grafting;

• stone grafted seedlings are cheap to produce• stone grafting is an easy method• many seedlings can be produced in a small place, unlike

inarching• seedlings can be produced near to where they are to be

planted

When to do Stone Grafting ?Stone grafting is done in the early summer, at the time

when wild mangos are ripe and the tips of the branches havenew red shoots.

Good fruitingvariety of mango

(mother tree) large poly-thene pots (4

inch diameter)

cuttingtool

razorblade

local/wildmango seeds

thin plastic

secateurs

thickplastic

Where to do Stone Grafting ?A stone grafting nursery can be made at home on a small

plot to grow just a few plants, or on a big plot with 2-300plants. One square metre of nursery bed can contain about100 plants. For this, a well shaded spot is needed, protectedfrom livestock, and easy to visit for care and maintenance. Ifpossible, there should be good fruiting mango trees nearbyfrom which to take scion for grafting.

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 14 - Stone Grafting4 5

1. Planting the Seed

How to do Stone Grafting

With stone grafting it is important tokeep note of the time when the rootstockgerminates. On the next page is a type of calendarshowing which work needs to be done, at what time.

plastic

a

b c

prepare scionon mother tree

preparingrootstock

when to do(a) and (b)

1312

1110

98

76

54

13

215

day

14

plan

tlo

cal

root

stoc

kse

ed

1T

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ayt h

issp

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s i s

coun

ted

asda

y O

ne

27

days

afte

rro

ot-

s toc

ks p

rout

s

3

sele

cta

good

bran

ch(b

ut d

on't

cut i

t)

4tr

imle

aves

arou

nd ti

pof

bra

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5

don'

t do

6.un

til a

wee

kaf

t er

3,4

&5

is d

one

cut

scio

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othe

rtr

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6

Gra

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7

7 da

ys a

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the

seed

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im th

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aves

on

the

scio

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• Fill the polypots with fertilesoil.

• Dig a trench for the nurserybed, about 4-6 inches deep. Thewidth and length of the trenchdepends on how many seedlings areto be produced.

• Lay out the thick plastic in the base ofthe trench.

• Place the filled polypots in the trench.• Collect ripe seed from healthy, disease-

free wild local mango trees. They ripenat just the right time for stone grafting.

• Sow the seed in the polypot and coverwith the soil.

• Watch for when the seed startsto germinate. Within a week,the first seeds will start togrow, but they won't allstart at the same time. Keepthe sprouted pots in oneplace.

Type

s of

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Sto

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pre

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e da

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otst

ock

seed

ger

min

ates

in t h

e po

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t. T

hede

scri

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wor

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in 3

par

ts :-

a p

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the

sci o

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c

a da

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@

how to doStone GraftingLet's SeeLet's See how to doStone Grafting

6 7

2

1

2. Preparing the ScionA scion needs to be cut and

brought from a healthy, good fruit-ing mango tree. This is called themother tree. Before the scion iscut it needs to be prepared whilestill on the mother tree, and thetime to do this depends on whenthe rootstock seed had sprouted in thenursery. Five to seven days after theseed has sprouted in the nursery, youneed to go to the mother tree and preparethe scion. However many seedlings in the nursery are5-7 days old, the same number of scions need to beprepared on the mother tree.

don't cutthe red tip

The third part of Stone Graft-ing is continued on p.11.

Preparing the ScionGo to the mother tree and se-

lect branches for scions. If thebranch has red sprouting tips, then itis suitable to use as a scion. Thebranch and tip should be healthy anddisease free. Now trim off the leavesaround the tip for a length of about 6inches, but don't trim the tip itself.

Local mangoseed plantedin polypotsfilled withfertile soil

Close up oflocal mango

seed planted inpolypots


#

8 9

3

4

65

8

9

7On the mother tree,leaves are trimmed

down to 6 inches fromthe red tips, but the tips

are not cut.

A scionprepared on the

mother treelooks like this.

After a weekthe scion iscut from themother tree.

The scion should immedi-ately be put in water, and

its leaves trimmed.

Make a 1 inch cut downthe centre of the local root-

stock with a razor blade.


10

11

12

10 11

Insert the pointed scion intothe rootstock

Bind with thin plastic

The grafted seedling is then put inside plastic.There are 2 methods :- for a single seedling

cover and tie with a plastic bag (left), or for awhole nursery, cover with a plastic sheet (right).

3. Cutting the Scion

The trimmed branch will be cut for use as a scion to jointo the rootstock, but not yet. It will be another week beforethis is done, and until that time the trimmed, red branch tipwill remain on the mother tree.

• After 7 days return to the mothertree to collect the scion.

• Using secateurs or a sharptool, cut the branch 6 inchesfrom the red tip. As soon as ithas been cut, put the scion ina glass of water. This is be-cause it is very soft and will other-wise dry out quickly.

• When the scion is in the glass,trim each leaf as shown. Thisalso reduces water loss.

• Now take the scion to the nurs-ery, where it should be graftedimmediately onto the rootstock.

4. Grafting the scion to therootstock

• By this time, the seedlings growing from the local, wildmango seed should be 12-14 days old. Their leaves andstem should be soft and red, like the scion on the mothertree.


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How to maintaina grafted seedlingMaintenance

Maintenance

12 13

a

a

b

f

e

c

d

c

c

b

f

e

c

d

Cut the top ofthe root stock to leaveit 3-4 inches high.

Make a 1 inch slitstraight down from thecentre of the top of the rootstock with arazor blade.

Trim both sides of the end of the scionto make a point, leaving the scion

about 3-4 inches long. The trimmedpoint should be 1 inch long.

Now carefully insert the point of thescion into the slit on the rootstock.

The rootstock and the scionshould be exactly fitting

Very carefully bind the root-stock and scion with a thin

plastic strip so that watercannot enter. The cut parts of

the rootstock and scion shouldbe completely covered.

Now the grafting work is complete

Care for the seedling after stone graftingAt first the grafted seedling is very weak. Even though it

may be well grafted, if it is not cared for properly the graftcan fail and all the work will be wasted. Care should be givenas described below.

The grafted seedlingsshould be watered

from below, not above.

• The seedling should not be touched or moved.• The seedling needs lots of water. However, water cannot be

given from above because the falling water will shake theseedling and the graft can break. Therefore, water should begiven from the bottom by pouring it into the trench where thepolypots are placed. This will seep into the polypots throughthe holes, and go directly to the roots. This is better for theseedling.

• The seedlings need to be kept in a moist environment. So coverthe nursery with plastic and bury the edges, like in the hot bednursery, so no air can get in. Only open when watering.

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Booklet 14 - Stone Grafting14 15

Bury a porous clay pot about 50cmaway from the newly planted mango

seedling. When this is filled withwater, it soaks out of the pot directly

to the root zone of the seedling.Instead of a pot, the hardened shellof a bottle gourd can be used, with

a small hole made in the base.

Bottlegourd

clay pot

Mango seedling

stone mulch

• The seedlings should be well shaded.• Within 1-2 weeks you will know if the graft has been suc-

cessful or not. If not, the top will dry out and die.• If the graft is successful, the seedling can be planted out

into its permanent position after 2 months in the nursery.For this, a pit needs to be dug and composted beforehand.

• The mango may flower after a year, but it is not good toallow it to fruit for at least 3 years. During this time, theflowers should be removed to stop fruiting.

• How to plant fruit trees such as the mango is descibed inthe Fruit Tree Planting booklet.

æ

Æ

Mr IshwariPrasad Panti


From Nepal, Rupandehi dis-trict, Butwal town, Mr IshwariPrasad Panti is a horticultureexpert who has done lots ofstone grafting. Now let's hearabout his experience.

Mr Ishwari Prasad Panti

The first thing to pay atten-tion to in stone grafting is thenursery. The rootstock as well asthe mother tree need good care.When grafted, the seedlings should be under plastic, and inthe shade. In the full sun, all the work will be wasted. Toomuch wind can also dry out the seedlings. For the rootstock,plant ripe seed from wild, local mangos (which grow every-where) in the nursery. After the rootstock has germinated, it isgrafted when it is red. The scion from the mother tree shouldalso be red. One week before grafting the scion should betrimmed while still on the tree. The rootstock should be cut to3inches tall, and slit down the middle. The scion should bethe same size, and cut to a 1 inch point. Making sure theedges are matching, the scion is inserted into the rootstock.This method is very quick, and I can get a 65% success rate.It's also possible to stone graft even when the rootstock seedhas just split and the stem is just pushing out.

Gri

hast

hi C

omm

unic

atio

ns

Read On !

Integrated Fruit Orchard bookletInformation is given in this booklet on how to plantfruit trees with various other multi-purpose trees,giving extra and quicker benefits for less work.

Fruit Tree Planting booklet

After raising good seedlings in the fruit nursery, ifthey're not planted well all the work can go towaste. Information is given in this booklet.

Agroforestry bookletPlanting trees on farmland can bring farmers manybenefits. Different types of trees grow better indifferent places. This booklet gives information onhow to plant trees to increase farm diversity andproductivity, without affecting crop yield.

Subjects Related to Stone Grafting

Pit Latrine bookletA fruit tree grows best if planted in a big pit. If youhave an old pit latrine to plant in, you can doublethe benefits. In this booklet learn how to make ahygienic, cheap and productive pit latrine.

Read On !

Documents

The Farmers' Handbook, Part 2 - Near the House, Volume 1