Expert Advisory Details

Diseases and their control during flowering and budding of cotton crop

Cotton: Do not allow the cotton crop to suffer from water stress during the flowering and fruiting stages, otherwise a lot of shedding of flowers and bolls will take place which results in poor yield. To hasten the boll opening, the last irrigation may be given at the end of September.

• If the damage/population of whitefly reaches economic threshold levels, spray the crop with Sefina 50 DC (afidopyropen) @ 400 ml or Osheen 20 SG (dinotefuran) @ 60 g or Polo/Craze/Ruby/Ludo/Shoku 50 WP (diafenthiuron) @ 200 g or Lano/Daita 10 EC (pyriproxifen) @ 500 ml or Oberon/Voltage 22.9 SC (spiromesifen) @ 200 ml in 125-150 litres of water per acre for the control.
• For the control of jassid, use Osheen 20 SG or Keefun 15 EC (Tolfenpyrad) @ 60 g or Neon 5 EC (Fenpyroximate) @ 300 ml or Ulala 50 WG @ 80 g or Actara/Extra super/Dotara/Thomson (thiamethoxam) 25 WG @ 40 g in 125-150 litres of water per acre with manually operated Knapsack sprayer.
• To check the attack of pink bollworm, prefer to spray Proclaim 5 SG (Emamectin benzoate) @ 100 g or Curacron/Carina 50 EC (Profenofos) @ 500 ml or Avaunt 15 SC (indoxacarb) @ 200 ml per acre. Repeat the spray if it rains within 24 hours of spraying.
• Mealy bug-infested rows/plants should be sprayed with 150 ml Transform 21.8 SC (sulfoxaflor) in 125 -150 litres of water per acre.
• To get higher yields, give four sprays of 2% potassium nitrate 13:0:45 (2 kg potassium nitrate in 100 litres of water) at weekly intervals starting from flower initiation.
• Do not use synthetic pyrethroids on cotton for the control of the bollworm complex after mid-September.
• To control fungal foliar leaf spots, the crop should be sprayed with Amistar Top @ 200 ml per acre in 200 litres of water at 15-20 days intervals.