Green house technology for Vegetables

Vegetable forcing for domestic consumption:

During winters in north Indian plains and hills, the temperature and solar radiations are sub-optimal for growing off-season vegetables –tomato, capsicum, brinjal, cucurbits, okra, cowpea, amaranth and chilli. In tomato, low temperature and low radiation cause puffiness and blotchy ripening. Hence, during extreme conditions of winter season (October-February) these vegetables can be well cultivated under polyhouse.

The protected environment could be well adopted in home gardens at slightly high altitude where winter is prolonged. A small-sized polyhouse can be made over uncultivable landscape, even on roof/terrace receiving sunlight for growing chilli, tomato, brinjal, summer squash and okra in pots and other containers. The high-priced vegetables –asparagus, leek, tomato, cucumber and capsicum – are most important crops for production around metropolis and big cities during winter season or off-season.

Raising off-season nurseries:

The cucurbits are warm season crops. They are sown in last week of February or in first week of March when night temperature is around 18-20⁰C. But in polyhouse their seedlings can be raised during December and January in polythene bags protected from cold winds and frost. By planting these seedlings during January-end or first week of February, their yield could be taken in one and one-and a half months in advance than the normal method of direct sowing. This technology fetches the bonus price due to marketing of produce in the off-season.

Similarly, in plains as well as in temperate regions of the country, the seedlings of tomato, Chilli, capsicum and brinjal can be grown under plastic cover protecting them against frost and severe cold. The environmental condition particularly increase in temperature inside polyhouse, may have hastened the germination and early growth of warm season vegetable seedlings for raising early crops in spring-summer.

Asparagus, sweet potato, pointed-gourd and ivy gourd are sensitive to low temperature. The propagating materials of these vegetables can be well-maintained under polyhouse in winter season before planting their cuttings in early spring-summer season for higher profit.

Basic requirements:

Selection of seeds: It is imperative to have better quality seed possessing genetic characters suited to the environment in which it is grown. Good vegetable seed must be true-to name, viable, disease- and pest-free, free from weeds, dirt and other foreign materials.

Selection of cultivars: Cultivars suitable for open field condition are usually suitable for polyhouse cultivation. But relatively rapid-maturing cultivars and high-yielding hybrids are ideal. The selection of cultivars and hybrids depend on plant type and their growth behaviour. Tomato cultivars and hybrids should be indeterminate type. The plants are grown upright as a single stem rather than bush. The cucumber cultivars should be unique. They should have only female flowering habit, with dark green parthenocarpic (seedless) fruits free of bitterness.

Vegetable Seed Production:

Seed production in vegetables is the limiting factor for cultivation of vegetables in India. The vegetables require specific temperature and other climatic conditions for flowering and fruit setting. Some vegetables are grown in one part of the country but their seed production is restricted to another part. To reduce such microclimatic condition a protected environment is essential. Summer squash requires a mild climate for flowering, fruit setting and fruit development, and seed formation. Therefore, its seed production is only restricted to hilly region of north India in summer season. But nowadays seed production of summer squash ‘Australian Green’ and `Pusa Alankar’ is also feasible in north Indian plains in a low-and medium-cost greenhouse. Similarly, seed production of highly remunerative crops –tomato,capsicum and cucumber – is also performed under protected environment. The maintenance of purity of different varieties/lines can be achieved by growing them under greenhouse without giving isolation distance particularly in cross-pollinated vegetables –onion, cauliflower and cabbage. To get proper pollination and fruit set in onion, summer squash, cucumber and bittergourd, the bee-hives are kept inside during flowering.

Vegetable cultivation in low-and medium-cost greenhouse is a technical reality in India. Such production system has not only extended the growing season of vegetables and their availability but also encouraged conservation of different rare vegetables. The seed production of vegetables under protected environment is also a major step to increase vegetable production in India.

How NOT to Motivate Employees: 10 Management Habits to Break Now

Feeling unmotivated? Uninspired? Disengaged? You’re not alone. “There’s a lot of valid reason we’re feeling burned out,” says Holly Green, workplace management expert and best-selling author of the book More Than a Minute: How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s Changing World.

“It’s because we are,” she says.

I recently spoke with Green about the amount of stress managers are under today to re-engage their employees in an increasingly stressful work environment. If employees think they’re the only ones who need a break these days, Green says, they should think again.   “Managers are feeling the same way. And when you’re burned out, it’s that much harder to think about engaging someone else.”

So rather than add one more thing to the already-overstretched manager’s to do list, perhaps it would be easier to simply know what NOT to do…Green was kind enough to offer the following advice on how NOT to manage your employees.

Top 10 Things Managers Should NOT Do To Engage Employees:

1. Don’t Practice the Halo Effect. This is when a manager assumes that, because someone has one good quality, the person is great at everything, preventing managers from seeing the opportunities for improvement; similarly, managers should also avoid the opposite of the halo effect – the devil effect.
2. Don’t Humiliate or Demean Employees (especially not in front of others).
3. Don’t Withhold Feedback because you assume your employees already know where they need to improve or will “figure it out” on their own. “If you’re going to be a good manager, it is essential that you get good at giving feedback,” Green says. That means both constructive and negative feedback.
4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Ongoing One-on-One Conversations to build trusting, more productive relationships with your employees.
5. Don’t Assume Your Team Knows What Winning Looks Like. “A manager’s most important role is to clarify what winning or excellence looks like, and then help people achieve it for themselves and the organization – you can’t over communicate in this regard.”
6. Don’t Assume People Understand Your Reasoning behind decisions. By the same token, don’t blame any decisions on “upper management,” “the HR department” or anyone else. Employees see right through that.
7. Don’t Forget That Praise is About Them, Not You. When recognizing employees, pause and consider what the individuals would want to receive and how they would want to receive it.  “For some people, presenting to the senior executive team could be a big perk and considered a reward for a job well done; for others, this could be the worst possible and most stressful of all scenarios,” Green says. Likewise, don’t give lavish public praise to someone who is very private, a Starbucks card to someone who doesn’t drink coffee or tea, or buy a cake for someone with dietary restrictions.
8. Don’t Speak Negatively About Other Team Members, their peers or senior management and leaders.
9. Don’t Give ‘Sandwich’ Feedback. While many managers were taught to give sandwich feedback (saying something good, sneaking in something negative and then quickly saying something good again), this method only “leaves the receiver wondering what the heck was the point,” Green says.
10. Don’t Ever Stop Recruiting. “Folks need to be re-recruited and re-energized – especially after the past few years.”

Anything you would you add to this list? What “habits” have you broken (or would like to see others break)? DO share in the comments below!

http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2010/10/27/ways-not-to-manage-employees/

Characteristics of Different Soil Types

Sand, Loamy sand, Sandy loam

These are well drained and aerated and workable for most of the year. They are very light to handle and quick to warm up in spring. Unless they have a very high organic matter content they are prone to drying out too quickly, and additional watering will be needed. This extra watering will also help to wash out the plant foods and lime from the soil, so they are likely to be acid (except for some coastal soils). They are often referred to as hungry soils and need lots of extra feeding. With careful management however, they can be amongst the most productive soil types.

Medium loam, Sandy clay loam, Silt Loam

These are the average soil types. They achieve a good balance between the ability to be very productive and the minimum of attention. The medium loam group is probably the best in this respect.

Clay, Sandy clay, Clay loam, Silty clay loam, Silty clay, Silt

Although these soils are difficult to work and manage, they usually have good supplies of plant foods and lime. The main drawbacks are the high water holding capacity (which means they are late to get going in spring) and the effort required to work them. You will need to catch just the right weather conditions to avoid hard work and damage to the soil structure. The use of heavy machinery (and especially rotavators) should be avoided at all costs, particularly when the soil is wet.

Peat moss or Fen Soils.

Provided they are not too acid and have effective sub drainage, these are probably the best natural soils available. They are rich in plant foods, are easily workable and early. It is possible to convert your existing soil into peat type soil by adding large amounts of organic matter. Some of the keenest exhibition growers do just this. It can be time consuming and costly at first, but once you get there life becomes much easier. You must avoid making your soil too acid though, and careful choice of organic matter is needed.

Chalk soils and Limestone Soils

These are the soils that contain a high proportion of chalk or lime. So much in fact, that it overrides their normal particle size classification. They are often very shallow soils, and severely limit the types of plants that can be grown successfully in them. If you have a soil of this type and are not happy with the range of plants it will allow you to grow, probably the best thing you can do is move to a new area and check the soil out first. If you can't move, the most sensible course of action is to limit yourself to the plants that will grow in chalky soils. Trying to change the soil is usually an uphill struggle and quite expensive.

source: http://pakagri.blogspot.com/2012/11/characteristics-of-different-soil-types.html