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Aromatic Plants>
Mint>
Propagation
Mint can be planted in the field in the following
ways :
- by means of underground vegetative parts
called suckers or stolons ,
- through propagules/ seedlings. Where mint
is to be planted early in the season, stolons
are used as the planting material.
- In case of spearmint, pepper mint and bergamot
mint, sometimes runners are also used for planting.
- In the case of late planting, first the stolons
are densely planted in nursery to produce propagules
/ plantlets / seedlings which in turn are transplanted
in the field.
Production of Stolons
The plot should preferably be the best piece
of land. Around 200 Sq. M Plot is required to
produce stolons for 1 hectare. Mature plants of
chosen variety brought from a high quality nursery/
CIMAP should be planted at 30 X 30 cm or should
have been produced by farmer himself. Care should
be taken that the mother plants of the area of
previous crop from which they are to be taken
should not be allowed to produce seeds; the flowers
if formed should be deliberately removed. This
way purity of the planting material will be maintained.
The nursery for the stolons is planted in August.
The nursery is given frequent irrigation avoiding
stagnation of water. Stolons are ready for use
during the months of December and January. To
obtain the stolons under the ground in the nursery,
the soil is opened manually or mechanically. The
stolons can be used immediately or within a fortnight
or so.
Production of Seedlings
The land to be chosen to raise the seedling nursery
should also be of good quality soil and well drained.
About 200-sq. m of land is required to produce
seedlings for planting one hectare of land. In
the late February or early March, the nursery
for raising the seedling is sown. The stolons
are dug out from the nursery and are chopped to
pieces of about one inch size. The seed bed in
which the stolons pieces are sown should have
sufficient quantities of farmyard manure (FYM).
Such bed is filled with water and puddled. The
chopped stolons are further broadcast into the
beds. @ About 100 kg/ 200 sq. m of seedbed. To
speed up the growth of stolons, they should be
covered with some soil and mulching material.
The stolons generally sprout in about two weeks
time. The plants bearing upto six leaves should
be chosen for transplanting in late March to early
April
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