Expert Advisory Details

PAU Experts Advisory for Upcoming days

Forecast for coming week: Light to moderate rain/thundershowers likely at isolated places of Punjab during next 96 hours and at a few places thereafter.

Warning: Thunderstorm/ lightning likely at isolated places on 01st & 03rd and with gusty winds (speed 30-40 kmph) likely at isolated places on 04th in the state.

Outlook for subsequent two days: Rain/thundershowers likely at a few places in the state

WEATHER CROP OUTLOOK: Farmers are advised to do crop operations in view of weather forecast.

FIELD CROPS

Cotton: Eradicate the weeds like kanghi buti, peeli buti, puth kanda etc. growing on field bunds, waste lands, road side and irrigation channels/canals to avoid further spread of whitefly to cotton fields.

• Whitefly also attacks other alternate host crops like brinjal, potato, tomato, okra, moong, mash and guar. Regular surveillance should be done for timely management of whitefly on these crops.
• The framers are advised to regularly monitor their cotton crop. If leaf curl infected plant are observed in the field, rough out and destroy them.

Rice: Complete the sowing of direct seeded basmati rice as soon as possible during the period.

• Start transplanting of Punjab Basmati -5, Punjab Basmati -4, Punjab Basmati 3, Punjab Basmati 2, Pusa basmati 1637, Pusa basmati 1718, Pusa Basmati 1121 during the period.
• Use PAU-Leaf colour chart for need based urea application.
• To manage foot rot in Basmati rice, treat the seed with Trichoderma harzianum @ 15g/kg before sowing. Dip the seedling’s roots in solution of Trichoderma harzianum @ 15g/ litres of water for 6 hours before transplanting.

Sugarcane: Check black bug especially on ratoon crop by spraying 350 ml Dursban/Lethal/Massban/Goldban 20EC (chlorpyriphos) in 400 litres of water per acre. Direct the spray into the leaf whorl.

Maize: Control maize borer by spraying 30ml Coragen 18.5SC in 60 litres of water per acre. Trichogramma, a bioagent can also be used as recommended by PAU.

• To manage fall armyworm on grain crop, spray Coragen 18.5SC @ 0.4ml per litre water or Delegate 11.7sc (spinetoram)@0.5ml per litre or Missile 5SG (emamectin benzoate) @0.4g/litre using 120 litres of water per acre for crop upto 20 days old. For effective control direct the nozzle towards the whorl. On fodder crop spray Coragen 18.5SC @ 0.4ml per litre water. Don’t harvest fodder till 21 days after insecticide application.

Vegetables: It is the time sowing of okra and cucurbits such as cucumber, bottle gourd, sponge gourd, pumpkin etc.

• Jassid in okra (Bhindi) can be managed by spraying once or twice at fortnightly interval with 40 ml confidor 17.8SL (imidacloprid) or 40 g Actara 25WG (thiamethoxam) in 100-125 litres of water per acre.

Fruits: Farmers can apply irrigations to fruit plants such as pear, citrus, litchi, mango, late bearing peach in view of weather forecast. The spray of pesticides or micronutrients should also plan accordingly.

• This is proper time for planning and layout for planting new evergreen fruit pants.
• Bagging of individual mature green and hard fruits of guava with white coloured non-woven bags will protect the fruits from fruit fly damage.