Expert Advisory Details

PAU expert's suggestion for cotton crop

Start sowing of recommended varieties/hybrids of cotton including Bt cotton or desi cotton during this month. Sow seeds in polythene bags to fill gaps in cotton. Give deep ploughings in paddy fields, where puddling was done continuously for longer periods as the hard layer developed due to puddling adversely affects the deep penetration of roots. Apply heavy pre-sowing irrigation with good quality water for better germination and crop stand. To reduce the attack of leaf curl disease, avoid growing American cotton in citrus orchards and adjoining bhindi crop. Avoid growing bhindi, moong, castor and arhar in the cotton crop and as border rows in order to reduce the incidence of American and spotted bollworm; jassid and whitefly. But, control such insect pests on these crops grown in the vicinity of cotton fields properly in order to check their migration to the cotton crop. In wilt infested fields, prefer to sow LD 949 and LD 1019 varieties of desi cotton. At the time of sowing, smear the cotton seed with Gaucho 70 WS (imidacloprid) @ 5 g or Cruiser 30 FS (thiomethoxan) @ 7 g/kg seed for preventing damage by cotton jassid. Sow both American cotton and desi cotton varieties in rows at 67.5 cm apart with plant to plant distance of 60 cm for American Cotton and 45 cm in case of Desi Cotton but for Bt cotton hybrids it should be 75 cm. Drill 75 kg single superphosphate or 27 kg DAP per acre at the time of sowing. If cotton succeeds wheat, which received recommended dose of phosphorus, omit its application to cotton. In coarse textured soils, half dose of nitrogen (33 kg urea/acre to varieties and 45 kg urea/acre to hybrids and Bt cotton) may be applied at the time of sowing. Use PAU –LCC for need based urea application. Apply 20 kg muriate of  potash in soils low in available potassium. Also apply 10 kg zinc sulphate heptahydrate or 6.5 kg zinc sulphate monohydrate to cotton in zinc deficient soils. For controlling weeds, spray Treflan 48 EC/Shaktiman, Triflurex 48 EC (trifluralin) @ 1.0 l/acre as pre-plant incorporation or Stomp 30 EC (pendimethalin) @ 1.0 litre/acre as pre-emergence application in 200 litres of water. At the time of spray, there should be sufficient moisture in the soil. For controlling itsit which emerges with first irrigation, Stomp @ 1.0 l/acre can also be applied after first irrigation.