Expert Advisory Details

PAU experts' suggestions for vegetable farming

The suggestions from PAU experts' are as follow:

• Potato: Complete sowing of spring potato in the 2nd fortnight of this month. If the seed raised from autumn crop is to be used for spring planting, its dormancy should be broken by dipping cut tubers in mixture of one per cent Thiourea and one ppm Gibberellic Acid for an hour. Air dry the treated seed pieces in shade for 24 hours in thin layers. For spring crop, the seed may be dipped in the solution of Emesto Prime @ 83ml or Moncern @ 250 ml in 100 litres of water for 10 minutes before sowing to control black scurf. Spraying this solution on potato will not control this disease. Twenty tonnes of farmyard manure alongwith 75 kg of N (165 kg of urea), 25 kg of P2O5 (155 kg single superphosphate) and 25 kg of K2O (40 kg of muriate of potash) per acre should be used. Drill whole P and K and half N at sowing and the remaining N at the time of earthing up. The late and early blight of potato may be checked by spraying the crop with Indofil M 45/Kavach/Mass M-45/Markzeb @ 500-700 g/acre. The covering of the seed plot with dehaulmed shoots should be avoided from infected plants. Aphids attack can be reduced by spraying 300 ml Metasystox 25 EC in 100 litres of water per acre. Do not spray these insecticides within 3 weeks of harvest.
• Onion: Transplant 6-8 weeks old seedlings of onion in the field during first fortnight of January. Apply 20 tonnes well rotten farmyard manure together with 45 kg of urea, 125 kg single superphosphate and 35 kg muriate of potash per acre before transplanting. For the control of weeds, spray Stomp 30 EC @ 1.0 litre/acre in 200 litres of water or Stomp 30 EC @ 750 ml/acre + one hoeing or spray Goal 23.5 EC @ 380 ml/acre followed by one hand weeding after 100 days. The herbicides should be applied within a week after transplanting or after first irrigation. To control purple blotch, spray the crop with 300g Caviet or 600 g Indofil M- 45 mixed with 200 ml of Triton or linseed oil as sticker in 200 liters of water/acre. Spray may be repeated at an interval of 10 days.
• Early cucurbits: To obtain early crop of muskmelon, watermelon, bottle gourd and pumpkin, procure 5 kg 100 gauge thick white plastic bags of 15 x 10 cm size and 100 gauge thickness. The plastic bags should be filled with a mixture of soil and well rotten farmyard manure in equal proportion. Puncture each bag at the bottom and fill it with this mixture Place the bags in sunlight and well protected from the frost and chilly Northern winds. In the last week of January, dibble two seeds per bag and water the bags with a sprinkler. Keep the bags moist and do not overwater. This technique is suitable for raising early crops of all the cucurbits for commercial cultivation.