Tropical Nursery Manual

A Guide to Starting and Operating a Nursery for Native and Traditional Plants

Tropical ecosystems and agroecosystems are vital, life-giving landscapes and are home to diverse plants, animals, and people in a range of climatic, geologic, cultural, and environmental contexts.

Every nursery is unique. Tropical nurseries operate in a vast range of environmental, social, and economic contexts. Each nursery has a unique design based on distinct needs, goals, and resources (figure 2.1).

Tropical ecosystems and agroecosystems are vital, life-giving landscapes and are home to diverse plants, animals, and people in a range of climatic, geologic, cultural, and environmental contexts.

A successful nursery provides healthy, high-quality plant materials ready to plant when clients need them. For areas with a pronounced dry season, clients usually need plants at the beginning of the rainy season.

Many environmental factors influence growth and production of nursery plants. The primary processes affected by environmental factors are photosynthesis and transpiration. Photosynthesis is the means by which light energy from the sun is converted into chemical energy in the presence of chlorophyll, the green pigment in leaves.

A growing medium can be defined as a substance through which plant roots grow and extract water and nutrients. Selecting a good growing medium is fundamental to good nursery management and is the foundation of a healthy root system.

A nursery container could be anything that holds growing media, drains, allows for healthy root development, does not disintegrate before outplanting, and allows for an intact, healthy root system to be removed with a minimum of disturbance to the plant.

Nurseries that work to strengthen and expand the presence of tropical native species are concerned about fostering diverse, strong, and well-adapted populations.

Seeds of many native species are challenging to germinate. One important thing a grower can do is to learn as much as possible about the life history, ecology, and habitat of the species he or she wishes to grow to understand the processes seeds from each target species go through in nature.

Many desirable and ecologically important tropical plant species can be difficult or very time consuming to propagate by seeds. Thus, nursery growers may want to investigate how to propagate these species by vegetative propagation, which is accomplished by combining classic horticultural propagation techniques with an understanding of the ecological and reproductive characteristics of the species.

Water is the single most important biological factor affecting plant growth and health. Water is essential for nearly every plant process: photosynthesis, nutrient transport, and cell expansion and development. In fact, 80 to 90 percent of a seedling’s weight is made up of water.

Plants require adequate quantities of mineral nutrients in the proper balance for basic physiological processes, such as photosynthesis, and to promote rapid growth and development. Without a good supply of mineral nutrients, growth is slowed and plant vigor reduced.

The web of life depends on microorganisms, a vast network of small, unseen allies that permeate the soil, water, and air of our planet. Many kinds of microorganisms existed for billions of years before any plants or animals came into being.

As any experienced grower knows only too well, nursery management is a continuous process of solving problems. One recurring problem is pests. In the past, nursery managers waited for an insect or disease to appear and then sprayed some toxic chemical to wipe out the pest or disease.

To promote survival and growth following outplanting, nursery stock must first undergo proper hardening. Hardening increases plant durability and resistance to stress by gradually acclimating plants to field conditions before outplanting.

Plants are ready for harvest and delivery to clients after they have reached target specifications (see Chapter 3, Defining the Target Plant) and have been properly hardened to withstand the stresses of handling and outplanting (see Chapter 15, Hardening).

Survival and growth after outplanting are the ultimate tests of nursery plant quality. After the nursery plants are established in the field, they will provide many benefits to the environment by improving soil quality, enhancing biodiversity, inhibiting establishment of invasive plants, sequestering carbon, restoring native plant populations, providing windbreaks, creating wildlife habitat, and preventing soil erosion.

The ability to produce healthy, vibrant plants is an art, a science, and a learned skill. Success, however, depends not only on your ability to produce quality plants, but also on your ability to work effectively with people.

Tropical nursery management includes all aspects of growing plants through all their growth phases as described in Chapter 4, Crop Planning: Propagation Protocols, Schedules, and Records. Management involves an understanding of practical, scientific, technical, interpersonal, and economic aspects of the nursery.

Working with plants is a process of discovery. Being curious and aware, paying close attention, and staying open and adaptive are important practices. Books and people can help us learn about plants in the nursery, but the very best teachers are the plants themselves.

The use of trade or firm names in this publication is for reader information and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service of any product or service.

Tropical ecosystems and agroecosystems are vital, life-giving landscapes. They are home to diverse plants, animals, and people in a range of climatic, geologic, cultural, and environmental contexts.

Why Start a Tropical Nursery for Native and Traditional Plants?. . 17
Kim M. Wilkinson and Brian F. Daley
The Environmental and Social Context in the U.S. Affiliated Tropical Islands. . 19
Why Grow Native Plants?. . 20