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Nutmeg
Botanical Name - Myristica frangrans Houtt
Myristicaceae

Vishwashree, Konkan Sugandha, Konkan Swad, Konkan Shrimanti and Keralashree

Soil –

Friable, well drained clay to red soils are suitable.

Climate –

It can be grown up to an elevation of 1000m with 150-250cm of rainfall under humid tropical climate.

Seeds /grafts/ budded plants
Seeds are collected from regular bearing and high yielding trees (more than 10,000 fruits per tree per year) and having 30 g weight/fruit, 1 g wet mace /fruit and 10 g wet weight of nuts / fruit. Seeds are harvested during June – July. Sown immediately after extraction in beds at a spacing of 30 cm and 2.5 – 5.0 cm deep. Germination commences from 40 days, extends up to 90 days after sowing and transplanted to poly bags (35 x 15 cm). One year old seedlings are transplanted to bigger poly bags (35 x 20 cm). Seedlings are transplanted to main field after 18-24 months.

Epicotyl grafting or Grafting (Approach method) or budding (Patch method) is recommended to perpetuate high yielding nutmeg types. Best season is from October to January.Use only orthotropic shoots as scion materials.
Precuring of scion
 The scions with 2 to 3 leaves, collected from the high yielding tree can be used for grafting purpose
 Straight growing shoots (orthotropic or chupon) should be always used as scion to get normal shaped nutmeg trees.
 Plagiotrophs are used to get bushy type plant

Plant 12 – 18 months old seedlings/ grafts/ budded plants in pits of 60x 60x 60cm size. Take pits at a spacing of 8 m x 8 m. Fill with equal parts of forest soil and cattle manure. Season of planting is June – December.
Apply FYM 15 kg, 20:20:60 g of NPK per tree during first year and FYM 50 kg, 300:300:960 g of NPK for adult trees (15 years onwards) in two splits June – July, September – October. Apply 50 g in each of Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria one month after manuring.
Irrigation is given once in 5 – 7 days during summer months.
Keep the area around the plant weed free. It requires medium shade especially during the initial stages of growth. Fast growing shade trees like Erythrina indica, Erythrina lithosperma,Gliricidia maculata or banana are planted in between them a few months prior to planting and can be thinned out later. It can be grown as mixed crop with arecanut and coconut. In Arecanut plantations, Nutmeg can be planted after every third row of Arecanut.

Black scale and shield scale:  Spray quinalphos 25 EC @ 1.25 ml/lit. in nursery

Loranthus
 It is a serious plant parasite affecting the growth of the nutmeg plant
 Mechanically remove the plant parasite
 Remove severely affected branches and twigs of nutmeg trees
 Protect the cut ends with Bordeaux paste

The seedling trees start bearing from seven to eight years, while grafts start bearing in four to five years.They attain full bearing stage 15 to 20 years and may yield up to 60 years after planting. The mature fruits are harvested when they start splitting. The aril commonly known ‘mace‘ and ‘seed‘ are separated and dried.

Fruits: 1000 – 2000 Nos. /tree
Dried nuts: 5 – 7 kg/tree
Dried mace: 0.5 – 0.7 kg/tree.

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