If your greenhouse is like mine at the moment, it’s full of tubs of French beans, pots of tomatoes, planters with cucumbers, courgettes and masses of salads. I’ve even been sowing a new batch of seeds late in the season to keep everything growing.

If you read gardening books and seed packets you always get the impression that there are strict rules to gardening. That’s true in many ways, you do need to ensure you provide the right conditions for things to grow, but I also believe there are 101 ways to do the same thing. Gardeners are usually very generous people, especially when it comes to advice, but don’t take everything you are told as gospel. Every garden, every greenhouse and every gardener is different; just as each plant has different needs and characteristics.

If you want to learn more about plants and gardening, try pushing the boundaries a bit to see what happens. Sow some seeds later to see if you can extend the season. Take cuttings of things you like, even though the books tell you it is the wrong time. Don’t take big risks that could result in a costly mistake, but experiment. It’s a great way to learn about all sorts of things and you always learn from

mistakes as well as the things that work well.

There are some things in nature that we can’t control and one of them is pollination. Although I’ve always pollinated my tomatoes by hand rubbing the pollen from flower to flower to boost the harvest, especially early in the season, I can’t reach all the flowers. But there are many flowers that are designed to be pollinated by insects, especially bees; these include peas, beans and all related plants. When you contain plants in an unnatural environment you need to ensure they have contact with nature. It’s no good covering fruiting plants with netting and fleece that pollinating insects can’t aceess. In the same way, if you have plants in the greenhouse that need bees to pollinte them you need to let them in. I do grow runner beans and French beans in my greenhouse, I find that the plants are easier to protect from slug and snail damage, and they crop earlier than those outside. To ensure pollination the windows of my greenhouse are open all summer and during the day the door is open too. Ventilation is a vital ingredient to a healthy greenhouse, but it also allows pollinating insects to come and go freely. It’s vital that they can get out safely, so don’t rely on automatic openers that shut during the evening as these can trap insects in the greenhouse where they will batter themselves against the glass trying to escape.

I like to stop awhile and watch the visiting insects go about their daily business. Watching a little bumblebee climbing inside the flower of a bean is fascinating. It’s a precise action that involves agility and sometimes determination. Their prize is some nectar, tucked deep inside the flower and as they move inside the flower they transfer pollen from anther to stigma within the flower and from flower to flower too, carrying out the vital task of pollination. Bumblebees very rarely sting, and when they do it is in extreme circumstances, e.g. if you accidentally squash one. This makes them the ideal subject of study for children.

Set the kids a project over the summer holidays to see which flowers attract bumblebees and which are magnets for honeybees. Take up the challenge yourself. Help them to understand learn about the importance of bees and to look closely at these little furry creatures so that they do not fear them. Show them the tiny beans that form within days after a bee has visited the runner bean flowers and get them to help ensure all bees and beneficial insects can escape from the greenhouse over the summer. Looking at gardening through the eyes of a child is fascinating, they notice different things, they question and they observe. Make gardening interesting and your children will absorb far more than you can imagine. A greenhouse is a great place to learn about life and a wonderful classroom for everyone.

P.P.Shelke

KVK Karda

Background :

                Washim district is a predominantly agriculture belt, entire district has rural setting and mainly dependent on monsoon rainfall. On as average 12.61% of the cultivated area is under irrigation while mostly remaining area is under rain fed farming situation with soybean, pigeon pea single crop cultivation. Very few farmers are having ground water potential and their rabi crops viz. Wheat, Gram, Safflower etc. are dependent on late monsoon rains.

 If rainfall in the last week of September is limited then farmers can not go for wheat cultivation, also regular power cut off is one of the major constraints for reducing area under wheat crop. In such circumstances short duration crop with limited irrigation and fetching remunerative market price was preferred by farmers. 

Interventions :

                Pulses Research Unit,  Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Karda was having functional linkage for joint implementation of sponsored Front Line Demonstration Programme since 1998. KVK Karda has played dominant role in popularizing Dr. P.D.K.V. released varieties Greengram AKM-8802, AKM- 9911, Pigeon pea AKPH-2022, Desi Chick pea, JAKI-9218, Kabuli Chick pea KAK-2 and Rajmash-VL-63.

Such appreciation was made by SRS Pulses – Realizing efforts made by Krishi Vigyan Kendra Karda in popularizing Dr. P.D.K.V. Akola varieties of Rajmash -VL-63 and JAKI 9218, Senior Research Scientist (Pulses) Pulses Research Unit D.O. No./ PDKV/Pulses/TA56/2003 Akola dated 7th May 2003 appreciated KVK work for popularizing and large scale adoption of Rajmash cultivation through net work of technology transfer clubs in Malegaon Tahsil and developing KVK,  TTCs as a source of seed for Rajmash crop.

Technology:

Pulses Research Unit Dr. P.D.K.V. Akola and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Karda Tq. Risod Dist. Washim jointly organizing Wheat and Rajmash comparative field trials from Rabi 2001 to 2007-08 in  TTC Village of Malegaon Tahsil.  The purpose of demonstration, comparative field trial was demonstrate higher monetary returns from Rajmash over wheat crop, short duration (95-100 days) less susceptible to pest and diseases and limited 3-4 irrigations.

Economic Analysis of Wheat and   Rajmash Cultivation.

                Pulses Research Unit Dr. P.D.K.V. Akola has sanctioned 35 ha area under Rajmash and Wheat crop comparative trial covering 90 farmers in KVK operational area. Result of last two yearare considered for study.  As per above economic analysis it is found that, farmer gets additional amount of                                                        Rs.2000-2500 from one acre Rajmash cultivation than Wheat crop and similarly storage losses are very neglible as compared to wheat crop.

Impact:

                Witnessing the success of Rajmash cultivation due to higher remunerative price, short duration farmers from technology transfer club villages Shelgaon Onkargir, Borala Jahagir, Karanji and Ekamba. Farmers of adjacent villages – Waghlud, Bramhanwada, Muttha and Shelgaon Bagade has emerged as a seed village for Rajmash in the district. Initially area under Rajmash crop was 5 ha. which has now spread into 12-15 villages covering 300 ha. area under Rajmash crop.