BLACK PEPPER NURSERY

Materials required:
• Black poly bags (Size 9/5) – 1000
• Black Soil – 1 Tractor Load
• Hasiru Siri – 5 Bags (250 kg)
• Sand – 20 Baskets
• Neem Powder – 5 kg
• Hasiru Panchagavya – 1 Litre
• Amrutha Paani – 1 Litre
• Hasiru Liquid Trichoderma – ¼ Litre
• Hasiru Liquid Pseudomonus – ¼ Litre
• Pepper cuttings
• Polythene sheets
• Material for shade regulation – 80% -90%

Procurement of quality pepper cuttings:
Pepper cuttings should be obtained from healthy and disease free pepper wines. The runners are chopped in to cuttings in such a way that each cutting has three nodes.

Preparing the nursery bags:
Fill the nursery poly bags with the soil mixture (Mixture of Black Soil, Bio-manure, Sand and Neem Powder) loosely discarding hard lumps of soil as shown below. The nursery poly bags should contain 2 holes at the bottom and 6 holes on the sides.

• Arrange the filled poly bags in the nursery and water them as shown below.

• Make three holes on the top layer of the soil to plant the pepper cuttings.

Treatment of Pepper cuttings:
To prepare the solutions for treatment of Pepper cuttings, mix 1 Litre Hasiru Panchagavya with 35 Litres of water and mix ¼ Litre Hasiru Liquid Trichoderma and ¼ Litre Hasiru Liquid Pseudomonas with 50 Litre water in two separate containers. Dip the cuttings as shown in the below image in the Panchagavya solution for 15-20 minutes and then dip the cuttings in Trichoderma and Pseudomonas solution for 10 minutes.

Planting the Pepper Cuttings:
Dip the base of the cuttings in Panchagavya (without mixing the Panchagavya in water) before planting and plant them in such a way that one node is inside the soil and two nodes above the soil. Press the sides of the cutting so that it’s planted firmly.

• Water the newly planted cutting and cover the nursery with polythene sheets covering all five sides as shown in the below image.

Maintenance:

• Water the nursery from outside if the temperature is too high to maintain moisture as shown below.

• Remove the polythene sheet after 20 days and investigate for unstable / diseased / fungus infected cuttings. Discard the unhealthy cuttings and replace with healthy cuttings. Check if the moisture level is favorable and water the nursery if necessary. The nursery plants should now be sprayed with 3% solution of Panchagavya and Amrutha Paani and cover the polythene sheet back as earlier.
• Remove the polythene sheet after 15 days (ie 35 days after planting) and take up 1% Bordeaux spray. The polythene sheet should now be rolled up and tied for aeration, covering the top portion to prevent rain water as shown in the below image.

• Take up Panchagavya and Amrutha Paani spray or Bordeaux spray once in 20 days henceforth. Take remedial action if spots on the leaves are noticed by removing the diseased leaves and spray Taakatt (2 grams with 1 Litre water).
• Maintain shade of about 50 % during rainy reason.
• During the month of August healthy nursery plants can be used for planting as shown in the below image. It is advised to spray Panchagavya or Amrutha Paani one month before planting the saplings.