Layout Design Of Orchard Garden:-Layout in general means making framework. It is the process of making outer look of lines in which we are going to plant different kinds of trees.
External framework, Spacing, Planting spot, Road and irrigation are top 5 things that should be considered while designing layout of an orchard.
The mistakes that are done during the initial step establishment and designing an orchard cannot be resolved later and this will negatively hamper our production and our all investment and time will go in vain.
What i mean is, once you plant trees in certain field. Then, these trees remains there for hundreds of year and many coming generations are going to see the design of an orchard.
Thus, It is necessary to know different layout design of an orchard before starting the work. This type of layout designing is very important in different types of farming such as Multilayer Farming.
In this blog, we are going to guide you on making layout design of an orchard garden-Layout types and spacing.
Layout Of An Orchard
Layout design of an orchard is heart of orchard as it gives ultimate look to our orchard garden which makes it aesthetically beautiful with easy to operate management practices.
Layout design of an orchard can be scientifically defined as the process of locating the actual position of plant, roads and water channel in the field in such a way that the plant gets enough space for growth and orchard looks aesthetically beautiful.
Many people preparing a layout design of an orchard garden because they don’t have proper knowledge and they jump in designing an orchard and ultimately they made mistakes. proper knowledge is necessary to start any work. The knowledge of layout is very important especially for fruit and Vegetable farming like Pineapple Farming, Chilli Farming.
Objective Of Layout Design Of An Orchard
➡️to accommodate optimum number of plants per unit area of the plot considering the sufficient space for proper growth and development of trees.
Things To Be Consider
There are many things that we should keep in our mind while designing a layout of orchard because the mistakes done while planning an orchard cannot be resolved later.
This will cause huge loss and our garden may not look beautiful. So, Here are the things to consider:-
✓The selected land for establishment of an orchard should have reach to direct sunlight. Plants requires (6-8)hrs of sunlight in a day. And, also sunlight helps in growth, development, photosynthesis, ripening and many other phenomena.
✓The soil of the selected site should be properly tested in lab to know its pH, nutrient availability and type. All the things should be in proper amount for the all round development of trees.
✓Roads should be made straight and right angled and fairly broad for the movement of garden machineries. The roads should be slightly sloped towards ends so that water doesn’t accumulate.
✓The sheds and water source should be made near to roads.
✓The selection of side should be done near market area so that the owner can sell their harvested products as well as buy things needed for their orchard at low transportation cost. This will ultimately reduce the production cost.
✓The water source should me made before planting the trees as they needs water. The water source should be made at high place so that the distribution of water becomes easy.
✓To protect orchard from thieves and unauthorized entry, there should be the provision of some fencing around orchard.
✓There can be made the provision of windbreaks. Windbreaks(eg:-Eucalyptus and Sagwan Tree) are very important to reduce to production loss due to high wind.
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Factors Affecting Layout Design Of Orchard
1.Spacing of trees
Spacing between the tress of orchard directly affects the layout. The spacing should be maintained in such way that the number of trees per unit area should be optimum with proper space for the growth and space of trees.
2.System of planting
System of planting also affects the layout of an orchard. System of orchard depends upon the factors like slope of land, area of land, convenience.
Types Of Orchards
There are 6 types of orchards which are used in layout design of an orchard. These designs are used to make the outer lines of an orchard and locating the position of plant.
1. Square Orchard Type (System)
This system of planting is simplest among all system. Most of the people used this system as it is easy to made.
In this system the field is divided into squares and trees are planted at the each corner of the square.
In square system, the distance between row to row and plant to plant is same. Plants in square system are at right angled to each other. Every four unit of plants make a square.
Merits of square system of planting
1.It is easy and takes less time to make.
2.Intercultural operation like irrigation, weeding, harvesting is easy in square system.
3.It facilitates interculture from both the direction from equidistant.
4.The middle area can be intercropped with quick maturing crops like banana which helps to generate extra income.
Here, we have provided the planting distance and row to row distance of some plants:-
FRUITS PLANTING DISTANCE
1.Mango 10×10
2.Guava 8×8
3.Lemon 6×6
4.Pomegranate 5×5
5.papaya 3×3
6.Banana 3×3
2. Rectangular Orchard Type (System)
In this system of planting, field is divided into number of rectangles and trees are planted in each corner of rectangle.
Like in the square system, four trees make a rectangle but the difference is, in rectangular system of planting row to row distance is greater than plant to plant distance.
Merits
1.No special knowledge is required to make this system.
2.Intercultural operations can be easily done.
3.Interculture can also be done easily.
3.Equilateral Triangle Type
In this system, the land is divided into number of equilateral triangles and plants are planted at each vertex of triangle.
In this system, three trees make a triangle.
At first, trees are planted at base line and in next line one tree is planted for two trees(two trees are of base line)and three trees make a triangle.
This system is not in popular use because practice of intercultural operation is difficult in this system.
It is useful, if some irrigation channel goes directly from diagonal of a field.
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4.Hexagonal Orchard Type
In this orchard layout system, six plants form a hexagon. The layout of hexagonal system of planting is difficult to made.
It accomodates 15% more plants in comparision to square system in same area. So, it is applied, if there is less area or land is expensive.
In this system 7th tree is planted at the middle of hexagon. This tree is called filler plant.
The filler plant should be early maturing. It is removed after main plants start their reproductive phase.
5.Quincunx Orchard Type
Quincunx system is very similar to square system of planting. The only difference is that a filler plant is planted at the centre of square system. The filler plant should be early maturing eg:-Banana.
6.Contour Orchard Type
This system of layout is practiced when the land is sloppy. In this system, a base line is made and other lines are made with reference to this line.
The planting distance in contour system may not be uniform. The main objective if this type of system is, it helps to control soil erosion and helps to conserve soil.
Note:-If the slope of land is less than 10%, then contour lines are made.
These were the type of layout design of an orchard gardening. Let’s learn about procedure.
Procedure Of Designing Square System Of Layout
1.At first, we have to select certain area of land.
2.A peg is marked at a distance equal to half of the plant to plant distance in each 4 corner of the land.
Eg:-If the planting distance is 10*10m then we must mark the pegs at 5*5m. In this mark, first tree is planted later.
3.After fixing peg, we should make base line. It is made by tying with peg. Two base line(one horizontal and one vertical at 90०).
4.Then we measure 10m from peg on both base line and are joined in middle. This middle position is also marked. This process is done to entire field maintaining the distance of 10×10m. Then we work for pit digging and planting the trees.
Note:-To make sure that the base lines are perpendicular to each other, we must measure 3m in one base line and 4m in another base line and the hypotenuse should be 5m(pythagorus theorem).
Thus in this way we can make the layout of an orchard. After making outlines of layout, then we should start the work of pit digging in orchard.
Pit Digging And Plantation
Pits are necessary to plant trees in orchard. We should dig the pit (1-2)months prior to the plantation. After pit digging, it should be left open in sunlight.
After 1 rainfall, plantation should be done. The pit should be filled with that field soil, animal maure and vermicompost.
It is good to do plantation at evening as it will preserve moisture in plant and maintains turgidity.
The plant should be taken to orchard with earth ball (with soil of previous spot). This will help plant to adapt and grow quickly in new environment i.e. in new design of an orchard.
Calculation Of Plants In Orchard
1.For square and rectangular system
➡️No.of plants= Total area of land/(plant-plant distance×row-row distance)
2.For Hexagonal system
➡️No.of plants= ((Total area of land)/(plant-plant distance×row-row distance))×1.15
Conclusion
Thus, Layout design of an orchard helps to solve our problems along with providing lots of production benefits with aesthetic beauty.
We have learned about layout, planting system and how to mark position for trees in layout,pit digging as well as the calculation of number of plants in certain area.
This is whole information on layout design of an orchard garden-Layout types and spacing.
If you have any suggestions, do let us know in comments.
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which system of orchard layout adjust highest number of plant?
Hexagon system of orchard layout adjust the highest number of plants. 15% more than other layout system.
This will be good. If you add pics of all layout