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Palmarosa
Botanical Name - Cymbopogon martinii var.
Family - Poaceae

Trishna, Tripta, PRC-1, Vaishnavi and RRL(B)-77, RRL(B)-71, Haryana-49(RH-49), Jawahar Rosa 68(JR-68).

Soil –

A well drained loamy soil is suitable. Comes up well under tropical conditions with an annual rainfall of about 150 cm. It does not withstand stagnant water.It requires exposed sunlight and does not perform well under shady situations.

Climate –

Palmarosa is a hardy plant and can grow in varying altitude right from sea level. It stands well in places receiving rainfall from 75 cm to 150 cm. But it does not withstand stagnant water. It requires exposed sunlight and does not perform well under shady situations.

The crop can be propagated through seeds and slips.
Seed rate: 2.5 kg /ha. Sown in raised nursery beds in lines 15 – 20 cm apart. Transplant at 3-4 weeks in ridges at a spacing of 60 x 60 cm during June – July.
Slips: Establishment will be poor as compared to seedlings. 28,000 slips will be required to plant one hectare at 60 x 60 cm spacing.

June – July. 28,000 slips/ha at a spacing of 60 x 45 cm in ridges.

Basal
FYM 10 t/ha and NPK at 20:50:40 kg/ha.
Top dressing
15 kg/ha in 3 splits at 3, 6 and 9 months of planting.

Give 1 – 2 weedings in the early stages and earth up after each harvest and top dress.

The first harvest commences at 3 – 4 months of planting. Subsequent harvests at 3- 4 months interval. Harvesting consists of cutting the upper third of the stem along with the leaf. The right time for harvesting is when the plant just begins to bloom as the leaf contains higher oil content during the blooming period. The oil from the whole plant is of good quality and economical to produce 0.53% of essential oil (fresh weight) and 72.4 to 86.5 % of Geraniol.

20 – 30 t/ha/year.
Oil
First year: 20 kg/ha.
Second year: 60 kg/ha.
Third year: 70 kg/ha
The plantation can be maintained for about 8 to 10 years, but the oil yield starts declining from the 5th year.

Seeds attain physiological maturity at 40th day after 50% flowering when the fluff (seed) moisture is around 20%. Leaching of fluffs in running water for 8 hours followed by soaking in KNO3 at 0.5% for 6 hours recorded the highest germination