Late transplanted mint Mentha arvensis technology for northern Indian plains

Field experiments were conducted to determine the conditions for mint culti vation, after rice-vegetable(s), rice-potato, rice-legume and rice-wheat cr op sequences, in the northern Indian plains. Varieties, date of planting an d density of two months old nursery raised plantlets, and N- fertilizer amo unts were the variables. About 90 days old transplanted crop of the mint va riety Kalka obtained with 2.5 x 10(5) plants and applied with 160 kg Nka ga ve an essential oil yield of about 164 kg/ha (about 55% of that of the norm al duration crop of the highest yielding variety Himalaya). The late crop o f the foot growing variety Gomti could be harvested twice. The leaf : stem ratio was observed to be a dependable morphological indicator of herbage ma turity in the mint crops. The leaf : stem ratio for a minimum essential oil yield of about 130 kg/ha varied from 1.0-1.5 for different varieties. It w as concluded that the late transplanting schedule of mint cropping can save at least three months and thus allows taking of food crops such as mustard , potato, grain legumes, onion, garlic and wheat in the same field prior to mint. Cultivation of one or more food crop in between rice and seedling tr ansplanted mint can benefit food production and bring to the farmer higher levels of profit/hectare than those accruing from rice-sucker planted mint.