गैंदा : आम आदमी का एक फूल

Flowers are the beauty in human life, it play important role from born to death. It increased the beauty in the function. To show expression, we can use a particular flower for it. Flowers may be cheaper as well as costly. But Marigold is a flower of common man. It easy to purchase or easily to cultivate with lower cost. It is one of the most commonly grown flowers for garden decoration and extensively used as loose flowers for making garlands for religious and social function ceremonies. It has popularized amongst the gardeners having its easy culture, wide adaptability, habit of free flowering and short duration to produce marketable flowers, wide range of attractive colors’, shape, size and good keeping quality has captured the attention of flower growers.

It is used as cut flowers, especially for making garlands. It can be planted in the beds for mass display or grown in pots. The French Marigold is suitable for hanging basket and edging. The demand for Marigold flowers during Dashara and Diwali or any Indian festival is very high. It is offered to the god and Goddess on the Durga Puja It is symbol of passion and creativity. Its belong to Compositae family.

Botanical  Name : Tagets erects (African Marigold), Tagetspatula    (French marigold)

Use of Marigold

• Marigold is antiseptic stomach problems, ulcers, menstrual period problems, eye infections, inflammations, and for wound healing.
• If the Marigold flower is rubbed on the affected part, it brings relief in pain and swelling caused by a wasp or bee.
• A lotion made from the flowers is most useful for sprains and wounds and water distilled from them is good for sore eyes.
• Use of fresh flowers is beneficial in fever.
• Marigold flowers are mostly in demand for children ailment.
• Internally it is used to treat bladder and kidney problems, blood in the urine, uterine bleeding and many more.
•  It is a good natural mosquito repellent. 
• Different coloured marigold flowers are used for preparation of garlands. They are even used to decorate the religious places.
• Some of the coloring dye is also extracted from the flower.  

Types of marigold

1. American/African Marigold (Tagetes erecta)

It is tall, erect-growing plants up to height of three feet. The flowers are large globe-shaped. It is very good bedding plants.  It flowers are yellow to orange. Its takes longer time to reach flowering stage than the French type marigold.

2. French marigold (Tagetes patula) 

Marigold in this group grows 5 inches to 18 inches height. Flower colors vary ranges red, orange and yellow. Flowers are smaller. It is ideal for edging flower beds and in mass plantings.

3. Signet marigolds (T. signata 'pumila') 

This type has compact plants with finely divided, lacy foliage and clusters of small, single flowers. Colour range yellow to orange colored, edible flowers. The foliage has a lemon fragrance and excellent plants for edging beds and in window boxes.

4.  Mule marigolds 

These are the sterile hybrids of African and dwarf French marigolds, therefore, known as mule marigolds. 

Marigold Cultivation Practices

1.  Soil and Climate:

It requires well drained loamy soil.  It can be grown well in hot and dry as well as humid climate. It cannot withstand severe cold. It can be cultivated at 5.6-6.5 ph of soil. Soil should be well drained, sand mixed loamy soils are best. It can be grown at any season of year, but rainy season is best for high yields.

2.  Propagation & Seed Rate:

Marigold is propagated through seed and the seed rate is 1-1.5 Kg per hectare.

3.  Raising of seedlings and transplanting

For raising seedlings, well dried flowers are crushed by hand and seeds are broadcasted on the raised bed during May - June and watered regularly.  One month old seedlings or a height of 10-15 cm seedlings are transplanted at the spacing of 60 x 60 cm or 45 x 45 cm. in well prepared seed bed which are properly manured and fertilized .

4.  Nutritional Requirements

Application of plant nutrients important for marigold yield as well as quality parameters.  Incorporation of 20 to 25 tones FYM at the time of field preparation, 100 kg N (50kg N as basal dose) rest 50 kg N supplied in two split doses after 45 Days, 25 kg P and 25 kg K per hectare  is applied at the time of transplanting as basal dose.

5.  Irrigation

To maintain the water content for a good growth. Constant moisture supply should be maintained from bud formation to harvesting of flowers. Irrigate the field at every 4-5 days depending on situations.

6.  Weed Control

In order to get profuse flowering; it is necessary to keep the field free from weeds. Generally 4-6 weeding are necessary throughout the growth period.

7.  Pinching

Removal of apical buds is known as pinching. In case of tall cultivars of African marigold, the plant first grows to its full height and later produces axillary branches. If apical buds are removed at an early stage of formation, a large number of lateral shoots arise resulting in well shaped bushy plant bearing more number of uniform flowers. Sometimes there is an early formation of flower buds due to late transplanting. In such cases flower buds are disbudded initially for allowing the plants to complete vegetative growth. In both African and French marigolds, pinching is recommended after 40 days of transplanting.

8. Staking

It means providing support to the tall plants. The African type marigold plants grow tall and needs staking with the help of bamboo sticks. Otherwise, lodging and bent stem may affect proper display of the plant.

9. Varieties

1. Winter Season:- Pusa Narangi Gainda, Pusa Basanti Gainda, African Gaint Double Yellow, African Giant Double Orange, Tiger.
2. Summer Season:- Cracker-Jack
3. Rainy Season:- Laddu Gainda, African Giant Tall Yellow, African Giant Tall Orange, Jaffri .
4. African marigold:-  Cracker Jack. Climax, Yellow supreme, Hawai, New Alaska, Aapricot, Glitters, Happiness, Primrose, Fiesta etc.
5. French marigold:-  Rusty red, Star of India, Red Bokardo, Flash, Petit spray, Harmony, Gypsy, Lemon drops etc.

10.  Harvesting of Flowers

French marigold starts flowering 30 days to 45 days after transplanting while African marigold 14 to 60 days after transplanting of seedlings. For Garland, stalk less fully opened flowers i.e. loose flowers are picked, white colored fully opened flowers with stalk for vase decoration  are plucked. Loose flowers are packed in a bamboo basket, while flowers with stalk are bunched in bundles and transported to market.  From one plant near about 100 to 150 flowers are obtained. Blooming duration is near about 3 months.

11. Yield

Yield start yielding after second and half months after transplanting & it will be continued for 75 days. About 6000  to 8000 kg flowers per acre are expected.

Authors:

R K Gothwal¹, V K Dayaman², Manju Lata³, M K Agnihotri⁴, C K Dotaniya⁵ and K K Pingoliya⁴

¹SKRAU Bikaner, ²JNU, New Delhi, ³Rajasthan University Jaipur, ⁴MPUAT Udaipur, ⁵BU Jhansi

¹Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.