Business Opportunities in Agriculture: 150 Field Interviews (Book)

Green Morning Horticulture - tree transplanting service

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Engaged in transplanting trees from one location to another. Also provides landscape and terrace gardening services

“I found that there were no professional services being offered in the sector of landscaping and there was nobody doing tree transplantation,” Mr. Ramachandra Appari narrates his drive to start his own venture, Green Morning Horticulture Services. It was established in 2009 at Hyderabadand provides tree transplantation services along with landscaping and terrace gardening. “In Hyderabad we have re-planted close to 4000 trees till date.”
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“Tree transplantation means transplanting the pre-existing trees of 30-100yrs with the roots from one place to another either due road widening or construction of bridges, buildings or flyovers etc,” he explains. “In case of road widening, we do not allow government to cut the trees but we remove these trees along with roots put it at different place and give them rebirth.” It is a time and labour intensive activity that needs immense efforts but Mr. Appari and his team excels in it. The trees transplanted by them have a success rate of 90% survival.
A major work undertaken by the company was to transplant about 800 trees which were growing in the stretch planned for the Hyderabad metro rail project.

At the average the company charges around Rs 20 thousand for a 20 year old tree and Rs. 60 thousand for trees more than 100years old. “If there is only one tree at one location for transplanting then I charge more while if there are 100trees to transplant then I charge less,” he adds.
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The company also has its own nursery and grows organic potted vegetables. “We grow brinjal, tomato, chillies and leafy vegetables in pots in our nursery,” says Mr. Appari. At flowering stage ie, after 60days, the vegetable pots are sold customers. “We sell at flowering stage which is easy stage to develop as during the initial stages the saplings are more prone to pests and diseases. And the customers might lose interest of growing their own food!” Potted tomato, brinjal and chilies are sold at Rs. 150/plant and all leafy vegetables (spinach, coriander etc.) at Rs. 100/pot.

When asked what plants can be grown in a terrace garden he answers, “All kinds of vegetables and fruits like guava, papaya, citrus etc. These days people want to grow their own vegetables and fruits in landscaping due to the rising awareness about the harmful effects of pesticides used for vegetables and fruits.”

“We offer AMCs to manage customer’s garden. AMCs depend on area, number of pots and distance from our office. Average is Rs. 2,000-2,500/month inclusive of all the pest control, fertilizer etc. The customer has to do weeding and watering,” he shares. For terrace gardening and nursery the company uses coco peat only. “We use hydroponics only for leafy vegetables.”
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Vertical gardens are also provided by the company for corners and dead spaces in the walls. “We design pot arrangement vertically with different colors of plants. There is plastic module which can carry these plants and we screw it to the wall,” he explains. The company charges Rs. 900/sqft for vertical garden.

Prerequisite for terrace gardening is that the terrace should be waterproof and should have minimum load bearing structure. Plastic sheet above the floor is placed on which the pots are kept. “For landscaping, soil should be good and should have good drainage. If the soil is not good then we add red soil and different nutrients. For kitchen gardens, we use grow bags. For leafy vegetables, we use plastic trays,” Mr. Appari clarifies. Terrace garden set up cost depends mostly on pots and potting mixtures.

The plants should be provided organic nutrients like neem cake, castor cake, panchagavya etc. To avoid watering plants every day, or evaporation loss, mulching is done, which is to cover the entire soil with either paddy husk or with plastic sheet or earthen clay balls. Once in a while spray pesticides to avoid pests and weed. Fast growing plants need repotting every 8-10 months, slow growing repotting can be done in 1½ years.

Pest control is done through neem oil spraying. It drives out insects and pests. However, it becomes ineffective when the infestation is high, so “monitoring is very much essential on daily basis,” he says. Along with neem oil, custard seed powder, lantana leaf powder or panchagavya etc. may be used.

“In tree transplantation, cost benefit ratio is in non-monetary terms. If I save the tree, I shall be doing well to the society,” Mr. Appari observes. “In terrace gardening or landscaping we add lot of aesthetics to the surrounding.”

Contact details:
Green Morning Horticulture Services Pvt. Ltd
Flat No. 201, Abhis N G, Gaffoornagar, Madhapur, Hyderabad 500 081
Mobile: 09959353444
Email: ramachandra.appari@gmail.com
 

Business Opportunities in Agriculture: 150 Field Interviews (Book)


Business Opportunities in Agriculture: 150 Field Interviews (Book)

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