Expert Advisory Details

Experts' advice for Horticultural Operations in January

The suggestions for the Horticultural Operations are as follows:

2. The deciduous fruit plants like peach, plum and bare-rooted ber can be planted upto second fortnight of January while pear and grapes are planted in the first fortnight of February before they start new growth.

3. Old unproductive pear trees can be rejuvenated during December-January. For this purpose, headback the 3-4 main scaffolds to 15 cm and apply Bordeaux paste on cut ends.

4. The old Perlette vines trained on bower system can be rejuvenated by heading back. The primary arms leaving behind one feet stub in the month of January.

5. To rejuvenate senile mango trees head back the trees at 3m from ground level leaving 4-5 outward growing branches in the first week of January and apply Bordeaux Paste on the cut ends and white wash the exposed branches.

6. To rejuvenate the declining citrus orchards after harvest, remove the dead wood during January-February before the new growth starts. Apply Bordeaux paste to cut ends and trunk of the trees followed by Bordeaux paint after one week. Spray the crop with Bordeaux mixture (2 : 2 : 250). Treat foot rot/gummosis and canker in citrus by decortication and disinfection of wound on the trunk with Bordeaux paste. After the paste dries up in about a week, apply Bordeaux mixture (2 : 2 : 250).

7. Check the young plants protected from frost and made thatches where required. If the growers have not applied farmyard manure and fertilizer to the fruit plants during last month, it should be given now. Apply the farmyard manure, single superphosphate and half nitrogen and half potash to the grapes after pruning. One irrigation should be applied to the ber trees during this month as the fruits are in the developing stage.

8. Nymphs of mango mealy bug should be prevented from crawling up the trunk by applying 15-20 cm wide slippery band one metre above the ground level.

9. The best time for harvesting kinnow fruits is 15th January to 15th February. Use high density polyethylene (HDPE) bags for individual packing of kinnow fruits and seal the open end by heating or with rubber band after narrowing and twisting it for enhancing shelf life. 

10. The dead, diseased, criss-crossed and unwanted branches from the bearing citrus trees should be removed during this month soon after the harvest of fruit crop. Spray Bordeaux mixture immediately.

11. To control the citrus canker, the infested plant parts like leaves, branches should be cut off and destroyed by burning. The pruned trees should be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture (2 : 2 : 250) immediately and apply Bordeaux paste to the cut surface and the trunk of the trees.