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Prefers gerbera farming in poly house than open field cultivation
“Growing flowers is much more lucrative than growing vegetables in a poly house. Flowers have good demand, less labour intensive and sold easily”, states Ms. Pavani Venkata Reddy. She grows gerbera flower commercially in poly house.
Ms. Pavani hails from an agriculture family where she has seen her family members growing paddy and vegetables. As growing up she also got some insight into dairy farming but she was got interested in growing flowers after reading a book called Annadanam, “It featured floriculture as profitable. To explore more I visited my neighbouring floriculture farm and was encouraged to start growing flowers,” she shares. Her farm is located at Secunderabad, Telangana. She commenced farming in 2013.
She started poly house farming with the capital investment of Rs. 50 lakh. She received subsidy of Rs. 25 lakh. Comparing poly house and open field cultivation she says, “The income generated from 1 acre poly house farming equals to 3-4acres of open cultivation. Open field requires more of water and work is tedious while poly house is more productive.”
Saplings were sourced from Pune based tissue culture lab at Rs. 35/sapling (including transportation charges). These were planted keeping the distance row – row 1 ftx1ft, plant-plant 2ftx2ft bed. In one row 150 plants were accommodated. After planting, in 60days plants starts budding and in 90days flowers are harvested.
On an average 1000 flowers are harvested per day. The saplings planted in 2013 continue to yield even now. “I harvest flowers every alternate day. I plan to change the plants soon as after three years the growth and production of plants comes down,” she adds.
Ms. Pavani sells her flowers in Telangana, Delhi, Guntur and Vijayawada etc. It is transported by bus or even online booking is encouraged. Sharing the details on pricing she says, “Price varies from Rs. 30-100 per bunch of 10 flowers during the season but off season it is sold at Rs. 5-10 per bunch of 15 flowers. Low price during off-season is manageable as we earn well in season.”
All the flowers are sold at the price received. “It is perishable, having a less shelf life so no question of storing. However, sometimes if the flowers remain unsold then we trash it and make compost,” she states. Flowers are plucked in the morning and by evening it reaches its destination. These are packed carefully in corrugated boxes before dispatch.
To increase the flower production, “We use water soluble fertilizers like calcium nitrate, 19:19:19, 12:61:00, 50:52:34, 13:0: 45, micro nutrients, magnesium sulphate, EDTA etc. For growth of the plants we use pantak, samrat and biogium etc. We use cattle manure, vermiwash, milk and butter milk as growth promoter and fungicides. We also prepare kashayam of cow urine, turmeric, asafoetida and aloe vera. All these ingredients are boiled in cow urine and we store for 2-3 months and use it weekly once,” she explains the farming inputs used throughout the gerbera production stages.
Common threats on gerbera farming include leaf miner, thrips, mites, federica, caterpillar, bacteria. “We use caldin for leaf miner, for caterpillar we use puf cream, for mites we use omite, for thrips we use confido super, cantop is for Federica,” she asserts.
Irrigation is done with drip facility. “We manage water by storing in the trench dug near bore well and use it carefully. Sometimes if needed we have to call for a water tanker!” she adds.
There are no specific problems in gerbera farming. It is routine and steady as per Ms. Pavani. “I will continue gerbera farming as it gave me new insight into farming. Next I want to diversify into pomegranate farming in open field cultivation. Farming if successful it becomes fascination to keep adding other crop cultivation. And in case of loss, it takes huge efforts to resume it again!” she concludes.
Contact details:
Ms. Pavani Venkata Reddy
1-307/95, Sri Ramnagar Colony, Kapra, ECIL Post, Secunderabad – 500 062
Phone: 09849272343
Email: pvrfarms@gmail.com
“Growing flowers is much more lucrative than growing vegetables in a poly house. Flowers have good demand, less labour intensive and sold easily”, states Ms. Pavani Venkata Reddy. She grows gerbera flower commercially in poly house.
Ms. Pavani hails from an agriculture family where she has seen her family members growing paddy and vegetables. As growing up she also got some insight into dairy farming but she was got interested in growing flowers after reading a book called Annadanam, “It featured floriculture as profitable. To explore more I visited my neighbouring floriculture farm and was encouraged to start growing flowers,” she shares. Her farm is located at Secunderabad, Telangana. She commenced farming in 2013.
She started poly house farming with the capital investment of Rs. 50 lakh. She received subsidy of Rs. 25 lakh. Comparing poly house and open field cultivation she says, “The income generated from 1 acre poly house farming equals to 3-4acres of open cultivation. Open field requires more of water and work is tedious while poly house is more productive.”
Saplings were sourced from Pune based tissue culture lab at Rs. 35/sapling (including transportation charges). These were planted keeping the distance row – row 1 ftx1ft, plant-plant 2ftx2ft bed. In one row 150 plants were accommodated. After planting, in 60days plants starts budding and in 90days flowers are harvested.
On an average 1000 flowers are harvested per day. The saplings planted in 2013 continue to yield even now. “I harvest flowers every alternate day. I plan to change the plants soon as after three years the growth and production of plants comes down,” she adds.
Ms. Pavani sells her flowers in Telangana, Delhi, Guntur and Vijayawada etc. It is transported by bus or even online booking is encouraged. Sharing the details on pricing she says, “Price varies from Rs. 30-100 per bunch of 10 flowers during the season but off season it is sold at Rs. 5-10 per bunch of 15 flowers. Low price during off-season is manageable as we earn well in season.”
All the flowers are sold at the price received. “It is perishable, having a less shelf life so no question of storing. However, sometimes if the flowers remain unsold then we trash it and make compost,” she states. Flowers are plucked in the morning and by evening it reaches its destination. These are packed carefully in corrugated boxes before dispatch.
To increase the flower production, “We use water soluble fertilizers like calcium nitrate, 19:19:19, 12:61:00, 50:52:34, 13:0: 45, micro nutrients, magnesium sulphate, EDTA etc. For growth of the plants we use pantak, samrat and biogium etc. We use cattle manure, vermiwash, milk and butter milk as growth promoter and fungicides. We also prepare kashayam of cow urine, turmeric, asafoetida and aloe vera. All these ingredients are boiled in cow urine and we store for 2-3 months and use it weekly once,” she explains the farming inputs used throughout the gerbera production stages.
Common threats on gerbera farming include leaf miner, thrips, mites, federica, caterpillar, bacteria. “We use caldin for leaf miner, for caterpillar we use puf cream, for mites we use omite, for thrips we use confido super, cantop is for Federica,” she asserts.
Irrigation is done with drip facility. “We manage water by storing in the trench dug near bore well and use it carefully. Sometimes if needed we have to call for a water tanker!” she adds.
There are no specific problems in gerbera farming. It is routine and steady as per Ms. Pavani. “I will continue gerbera farming as it gave me new insight into farming. Next I want to diversify into pomegranate farming in open field cultivation. Farming if successful it becomes fascination to keep adding other crop cultivation. And in case of loss, it takes huge efforts to resume it again!” she concludes.
Contact details:
Ms. Pavani Venkata Reddy
1-307/95, Sri Ramnagar Colony, Kapra, ECIL Post, Secunderabad – 500 062
Phone: 09849272343
Email: pvrfarms@gmail.com