AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Its our passion to be at the cutting edge of the technology. That’s what has prompted us to jump into the foray of root trainers for rubber plant generation way back in 2008. With technical guidance from Rubber Research Institute of India (RRII), we prototyped the first ROOT TRAINER for rubber planting material in 2008. After a number of trials, the current design was frozen and the first Root Trainer for rubber was moulded out at Accuplast. Accuroot Root Trainer- the accurately and precisely designed Root Trainers for rubber planting material was thus born.

The planting material generation technology for rubber has gone through a process of evolution over the last one century. We call it evolution from First Generation Technology through Fourth Generation Technology. They are as under :

Today our major product portfolio comprise of three categories of products

 

• First Generation Technology : Germinated Seed - Direct planting of the good quality germinated seeds directly in the field

• Second Generation Technology : Budded Stumps - Developing budded stumps in the nursery using buds of high yielding variety of plants and replanting these budded stumps in the field

• Third Generation Technology : Polybag Plants - Developing budded stumps in polybags in the nursery using buds of high yielding variety of plants and replanting these polybag plants in the field

• Fourth Generation Technology : Root Trainer Plants - Planting materials generated in the nursery through ROOT TRAINER technology and replanting them in the field

 

ROOT TRAINER Technology is fast catching up and replacing its predecessors as it has multiple advantages over the other technologies.

Poly bag, plants had some serious disadvantages/imperfections, the effects of which continued throughout the plant’s life. The below given is a partial list of such disadvantages.

• Coiled tap root of the plant

• Poor generation of lateral roots and its entangled formation

• Poor anchorage and the resultant poor wind-fastness of the plants

• Poor drought tolerance as the coiled tap root does not gain depth

• Poor properties of top soil as the potting medium

• Unavailability of top soil in the nursery over the years

• Heavy polybags that are difficult to transport from nursery to the field and within the field

• Plant damage due to shaking while transporting in the trucks and the resulting poor survival rates upon transplantation

• Poor nutrient absorption when transplanted

• Uneven growth among plants in the field

• Longer tenure to attain tapping girth

• High maintenance cost for the left over plants in the nursery

 

Root Trainer as the name suggests trains the root system to form itself into a well developed whole – one that is luxuriant in growth and filled with potency to grow deep and wide as soon as the plant is transplanted in the soil. There are different scientific and agricultural principles that have been used to realise the above objectives.

The Root Trainer is made of high quality engineering plastic and is somewhat of a conical shape with a drainage hole in the bottom. It has inherent elements in its design that directs the lateral root system to orient themselves in downward direction unlike in poly bag system where the lateral roots growing in all possible directions and getting entangled into a mess. Again, the tapering shape of the Root Trainer prevents the lateral roots from growing back upwards.

The tap root in the middle of the root foliage grows vigorously towards the drainage hole at the bottom, but gets restricted at the bottom end during the Air Hardening phase of the generation cycle. This restrictive force fills in the potency in the tap root resulting in an explosive surge in its growth no sooner than it is exposed to the soil upon transplanting.

Within a few months of transplantation the tap root gains depths upto 10 feet or more. This is in contrast to the poly bag plants whose tap root remains coiled up and grows only a few feet of depth even after many years after transplantation.

On the operational side, poly bag-raised plants result in heavy and bulky units leading to high transportation and handling costs, substantial damage to the plants when transported in trucks and high planting costs – about three times as that of plants raised in Root Trainers.

A scientifically designed Root Trainer filled with the right potting medium can result in much better planting materials that will result in almost 100% survival upon transplantation, stern anchorage, excellent wind fastness, much faster growth, early maturity, etc.

As regards economy, given that the Root Trainers are re-used and transportation and planting costs are limited to a fraction of that for poly bag plants, this new technology remains as economical as poly bag technology, if not cheaper, at the planting stage itself. Savings resulting from not having to replant in the subsequent years, less loss of trees over the years owing to strong anchorage and drought resistance and also early maturity of the trees result in substantial direct and indirect gains in future years.