Production

Mentioned below are the basic features of various flowers.

Rose
Plenty of light, humid and moderate temperature ranging from 150
o
C to 200
o
C is
considered as an ideal condition for production of roses in the tropical and sub-tropical
climate of India. When roses are grown at a temperature below 150
o
C, the interval
between flushes becomes long. At higher temperature above 300
o
C roses can be grown
provided high humidity is maintained and evaporation rate is brought down.

Rose crop requires to be grown in a soil with good drainage properties rich in organic
matter and oxygen. Organic matter as high as 30% in the top 30cm of the growing
beds is provided. The pH of the soil should be around 6 to 6.5, i.e., slightly acidic soil is
considered more suitable for rose cultivation.

In case the plant is in green house, the area is normally divided into 2 parts A&B,
consisting roughly ha, each. When the green house area is 1 ha. Each area is having
about 91 meters length is which 56 beds of 1.2 meter each and 0.4 metes for furrow
path area are provided. Therefore, the size of each bed is of 26.25-meter length, 1.2-
meter width. The plants are planted in the bed by providing spacing of 0.6 meter
between rows and 0.17 meter between the plants. With this spacing, the plant density
comes to 700000 plants per ha. As against the 2 rows system of planting followed in
many units, some of the companies like Unit-11, Unit-20, Unit-19 etc. established with
the collaboration of M/s Flodac have gone for 3 rows system which has resulted in high
rate of fungal disease and also difficulty faced in carrying out inter-cultural operations.
These units have removed the 3rd row in the second year of planting hence; it is
advisable to go only for 2 rows system of planting for better inter-cultural operation and
also to avoid attack of fungal diseases.

Rose plants under protected green house condition require approximately 1 ltr of water
per plant per day. Except for the very old units, most of the other units are adopting
drip irrigation system from the reputed companies to deliver the above quantity of
water. A drainage line is also provided below the beds for disposal of excess water.

Organic manure is required to be added so that top 30 cms of the soil has 30% of
organic matter content. A dose of 25 kg of manure per square meter will take care of
this requirement. Applications of inorganic fertilizers including micronutrients are
supplied during irrigation time alongwith the Drip lines. Majority of the units are having
fertigation tanks and supplying the required quantity of both major and minor nutrients
as per the requirement of the plant based on the soil test reports.

Nutritional requirements, pruning methodology, planting distance and use of growth-
regulating chemicals in field-grown roses cv. Super Star and Raktagandha for
production of first grade flowers with maximum yield have been standardized at the
IARI, New Delhi. A fertilizer dose comprising 520 kg N, 868 kg P2O5 and 694 kg K2O
has been recommended/ha. Among the secondary nutrients, application of 50 kg
MgSO4/ha was found to be beneficial. Out of the several micronutrients, spray of
FeSO4 1.0% and ZnSO4 0.5% during November and January was most effective. Plants
pruned at 45 cm height from ground level retaining only 4 healthy shoots during mid-
October to mid-November, an spaced at a distance of 30 cm x 40 cm gave maximum
flower yield per unit area.