Greenhouses planning and organization in a nursery for plant propagation

Crop propagation is very important for all cropping systems and all procedures must be carried out in optimal conditions to obtain high quality propagation materials. The environmental control can be different if the plants are obtained from seeds or by cuttings or grafting. Propagation nursery can be planned and organized to improve and facilitate seed germination, the agronomic management of mother plants, rooting of cuttings, and the healing of junction between rootstock and scion in grafted plants. Inside a greenhouse, or directly connected, it is important to have a germination chamber where the temperature can be easily controlled and adjusted for the faster seeds germination and then transferred in the growing greenhouse. The greenhouse complex is usually composed of multi space environments with a sector where the mother plants are grown in optimal temperature, light intensity, and nutrition conditions. These plants should have high photosynthetic activity to obtain high sugar content cuttings. This environment, hosting the mother plants, must have anti-insect nets in all windows or air exchange channels to avoid virus infection and guarantee sanitary quality of the cuttings. In the complex, it should be planned to have a laboratory for the aseptic operations related to grafting and subsequent greenhouse area equipped with heated benches and high humidity to avoid water losses from herbaceous grafted plants. In this environment will be also performed the rooting of cuttings with or without high humidity depending on whether cuttings are herbaceous or woody. Nowadays, all propagation environments must be equipped with climate control (heating, cooling, lighting, relative humidity, air exchanges, etc.) and sensors for real-time monitoring and adjustments. The economic success of a nursery mostly depends on the space use efficiency. Therefore, all the above aspects must be properly addressed thereby the propagation of plants and the production of propagation material can be fast guaranteeing vigorous plants with certified sanitary quality.