GrowNurs

Welcome to GrowNurs Individual posts arranged from latest posts to earlier posts are found on our home page. If you're looking for something specifically related to infrastructure,avocados,arum lilies or tomatoes, allocated pages  with specific information related to either one you're looking for is found at the tabs at the top of the blog page for easy access to what you're looking for. Enjoy and thank you for visiting our Blog!

Fertilizer: Although inorganic fertilizers are more readily available we believe in using organic fertilizers. Inorganic fertilizers has the ability to burn the roots, the basal plate as well as the leaves if it comes in direct contact with it, which is another reason why we prefer organic products as it does not have these dramatic negative effects when the concentration of the fertilizer is slightly off. Fertilizers come in granular or liquid form. Granular fertilizers are better because the don't dissolve as quickly, they remain in the soil longer, and the longer the better. Nitrogen (N) is important for preparing soils for bulbs to be able to start their leaf growth. Phosphorus(P) and Potash are good for overall health, resisting disease, root growth and flowering. When adding granular fertilizers, mix with soil ate the bottom of the planting holes. Adding a very diluted liquid fertilizer to the misting system, that regulates the relative humidity in the greenhouse, ...

TOMATO PROPAGATION At GrowNurs we propagate our tomato seedlings via Hydroponics.Hydroponics is the process of growing a plant in a liquid with added nutrients but without the presence of soil. Tomatoes grown via hydroponics We use Hydroponics because there  are many advantages using this technique,the biggest of which is a greatly increased rate of growth within our plants.Our plant mature faster and produce up to 30 percent more than the same plant grown in soil. The reason for this is because the plants will not have to work hard to obtain nutrients since there is a continual supply of nutrients available via the solution being pumped through the system.This allows the plant to focus more on growing upstairs instead of expanding the root system downstairs. A hydroponic system uses less water than soil based plants because the system is enclosed,which results in less evaporation.Hydroponics is better for the environment because it reduces waste and pollution from soil...

PLANT TRAINING Image of the setup of our plant training mechanism Tomato plants are trained to one stem that is physically supported by twine woven around wooden stakes to support unpruned plants as they grow. The twines are attached to the young plants by plastic "tomato clips" at about one week after transplanting. Once the plants are clipped, the next procedure is to lean the tomato plants into the direction that they will eventually be trained along the row. PRUNING GrowNurs is a large propagation nursery therefore we have many workers at our nursery and each worker is assigned to an area in the greenhouse where they are responsible for pruning. The primary pruning tasks are the removal of lateral shoots,twisting the twine around the lengthening stem and Truss pruning. Pruning out the laterals and twisting the supporting twine is usually done twice a week.The lateral stems are pruned as soon as they can be distinguished from the primary stem. At G...

Materials: Clean, healthy bulbs 70% (v/v) Alcahol Sterile water Sodium hypochlorite solution (1% available chlorine)+ 0.03 / Tween 20 (Polysorbate 20) Containers with medium: the mediumconsists of MS salts, 3% sucrose(w/v), 100mg/L myo-inositol, 0.4 mg/L thiamine-HCL, 0.27 m Mc  NAA, 0.6% (w/v) agar, and a pH of 6 before autoclaving. This medium can be used both for initiation and propagation. Bulb growth in the final step can be on the same medium, but with 6% extra sucrose Method: Remove roots. Wash bulbs thoroughly with sterilized water. Remove brown or damaged outer scales. Peel off clean and healthy-looking scales. Remove brown tips. Since regeneration is best at the basal side of the scale, take care not to damage this part. Rinse scales for about 30 s with 70% alcohol. Sterilize scales for about 30 min in sodium hypochlorite. Rinse 3 times with sterile water. Cut explants of, about 7 x 7 mm. Place explants with abaxial side on medium. Explants ...

Propagation Technique for Zantedeshia aethiopica For most bulbous crops there are a few propagation techniques that have been developed over the years and choosing the type of technique is very important. For the Arum lily (‘ Zantedeshia aethiopica’) there are but two different ways of propagating the  bulbs, scaling and micro propagation. Because the speed of the scaling method is often low, introduction of newly bred cultivars or of pathogen free bulbs requires a long period of time. Micropropagation considerably shortens this period. Furthermore, because of the large number of propagation cycles in the field, conventionally produced bulbs may become easily infected. Micropropagation produces starting material that is completely pathogen free. When Micropropagation is used, bulblets is produced instead of microcuttings (with scaling technique). This is important due to the fact that bulblets mostly do not require a rooting treatment and acclimation. But they do re...

SEEDLING PROPAGATION GrowNurs propagates tomatoes via seedling propagation. TRANSPLANTING INTO THE PRODUCTION GREENHOUSE Our tomato seedlings are usually ready to be transplanted into the greenhouse at 5-6 weeks of age.At this time the plants will have 7 to 8 true leaves.When transplanting our tomato plants into the production greenhouse,we put place the plants in direct contact with our growing medium(sawdust) when a number of roots are developing through the bottom of the rockwool blocks the seed was initially planted in.The goal is to ensure that the roots go directly into the sawdust to ensure firm rooting. But before we place the plants in direct contact with the sawdust,we first saturate the sawdust with feed solution for one week prior to the transplant so that the E.C. in the solution is the same as the rockwool block of the seedling and allows for complete wetting of the sawdust. This ensures that there is a constant environment between the block and the media that they ...

Aftercare: Soil, Filtration and Irrigation After the scion is cut off from the rootstock, the nutrient an hormone vessel will be opened and the small tree will be planted in a planting basin.  Its important in this stage of the avocado trees live to be treated delicate and have the right mixture of soil, good filtration and the right amount of irrigation. Soil The soil must have good drainage properties, because avocado trees roots have a tendency to rot easily with stagnant water, but it also need a lot of water frequently. That is why loose soils is preferred.  We will use a sandy loam,    limestone  and decomposed granite particle soil for our trees. Avocado trees can grow in both acidic and basic soils, but they prefer a acidic pH of 6-6,5.  The loose so ils is also good for the root growing, compacted soils hinder root spreed and  which can stunt the tree's growth and contribute to  root rot. Filtration Important nutrients f...

Check list for the management of young avocado trees Subject Aspect to be checked Planting mound No hollows at or near base of mound At least 100mm high At least 700mm in diameter Flat on top  Planting depth Not too shallow (>5mm soil on top of medium) Not too deep (<10mm soil on top of medium) No exposed roots White Paint All green bark painted with white PVA Stem painted to below soil level Base of stem covered after painting No hardened paint ring on/below soil level Stake/Brace Inserted outside drip area At least 25mm diameter Inserted at an angle against prevailing wind Inserted to intersect stem of tree Tying up Untreated sisal twine used Stem tied up tight against stake Tied above side...

Technique To Propagate We will use cuttings in the juvenile phase from our preferred cultivar, the mother tree of our avocados.  The cuttings we use we get from the grown trees we planted near our nursery in the Paarl area, Paarl have a good climate for avocados to grow naturally. We will get our mother trees, healthy and grown, from Westfalia Nursery and with our preferred cultivar.  Westfalia have already agreed to sell us some of there mother trees with healthy and high quality genes. The technique we will use to propagate is grafting, the preferred cutting, as a scion, onto a already fully grown root system and root stock.  We will grow out the root stock from a seed of the same cultivar, but it would be different in gene pools.  We will inspect the growth and health of plants, if any root stock has diseases, illness or poor growing/rooting it will be discarded.  Its discarded because we don’t want any disease to be carried onto the scion that will...