Chapter 12. Plant nurseries

A plant nursery is an essential part of every farm and garden. It provides the best environment for plants when they are small and fragile. As children need special attention when they are young, so do plants. Healthy, strong seedlings grow into healthy, productive plants.

The early stages of a plant’s life determine how well it will grow in the future. This is the same for all plants grown from seeds, cuttings, roots, and other methods of growing plants. A nursery can be as small or large as you need: e.g. it can be part of a garden bed with some coconut leaf cover or a large community nursery for growing reforestation and plantation trees. Nurseries can be used to grow vegetable seedlings as well as plants, flowers, fruit trees, shade trees for animals and other trees.

This chapter explains all the basics of building and maintaining a healthy and productive plant nursery that is integrated with the rest of your garden or farm.

Contents include:

• Nursery location
• Nursery design and construction
• Seedling boxes and containers
• Potting mixes
• Problems of too many nutrients and fungus
• Planting seeds
• Root propagation plants
• Garden plot nurseries
• Nursery maintenance
  – Watering
  – Fertilising
  – Transplanting
  – Weed control
  – Pest and disease control
  – Preventing root problems
  – Hardening plants before planting