chilli_phule_jyoti.jpg

General Information

Most valuable and important crop of India and is used as a principle ingredient of various curries and chutneys, also used in vegetables, spices, condiments, sauces and pickles. Also it has many medicinal properties, especially as an anti-cancerous agent and instant pain reliever. It also prevents heart diseases by dilating blood vessels. It is rich source of Vitamin. India is the world leader in chilli production. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odissa, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are major chilly producing states in India.

In Uttar Pradesh, Bareily and Khurja are major chilli producing areas. In UP, near about 17.5 thousand hector area is under chilly cultivation (2005-06) with 0.93tonnes/ha productivity.  
 

Climate

  • Season

    Temperature

    18-40°C
  • Season

    Rainfall

    625-1500mm
  • Season

    Sowing Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Harvesting Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Temperature

    18-40°C
  • Season

    Rainfall

    625-1500mm
  • Season

    Sowing Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Harvesting Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Temperature

    18-40°C
  • Season

    Rainfall

    625-1500mm
  • Season

    Sowing Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Harvesting Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Temperature

    18-40°C
  • Season

    Rainfall

    625-1500mm
  • Season

    Sowing Temperature

    35-40°C
  • Season

    Harvesting Temperature

    35-40°C

Soil

Chilli is grown in many types of soils-sandy to heavy clay. A well-drained, fairly light fertile loam with a fair moisture holding capacity is ideal. The light soils produce better quality fruits than heavy soils. Chilli crop prefers a soil reaction ranging from pH 6–7.

Popular Varieties With Their Yield

Arka Meghana: High yielding hybrid with resistant to powdery mildew and viruses. Fruits are of length 10.6cm and width 1.2 cm. Fruits are dark green and turn to red on maturity. Gives average yield of 13.5t/acre green chilli and 2 t/acre dry chilli.

Arka Sweta:
High yielding hybrid for fresh market. Suitable for cultivation in kharif and rabi seasons under irrigated conditions. Fruits length is 11-12 cm, width 1.2-1.5 cm. They are smooth and medium pungent. Fruits are light green and turn red at maturity. Tolerant to viruses. Yield 13t/acre (fresh) and 2t/acre (dry).

Kashi Early: Plants of are tall (100-110 cm height) without nodal pigmentation on dull green stems and bear pendant fruits. Fruits are long (8-9 x 1.0-1.2 cm), attractive, dark green and turn bright red at physiological maturity, pungent with smooth surface. First picking of the green fruits starts at about 45 days after transplanting. Average yield of this hybrid is 100 qtl/acre (red ripe).

Kashi Surkh: Plants are semi determinate (1-1.2 m), erect and nodal pigmentation on stem. Fruits are light green, straight, length 11-12cm, suitable for green as well as red fruit production. First harvest starts after 55 days of transplanting. Green fruit yield is 100 qtl/acre.

Kashi Anmol:
Plants are determinate, dwarf (60-70 cm) with nodal pigmentation on stem and bear green attractive pendant fruits. First picking starts from 55 days after transplanting. It gives average yield of 80qtl/acre.

Pant C-1: This variety is easily distinguishable from the other varieties because it has upright fruiting pods. The pods are highly pungent, relatively small, broader at the base and narrow towards the tip. It is moderately resistant to mosaic and leaf curl virus. The green pod yield of this variety is 110qtl/acre. The dry pod yield is about 20qtl/acre.

Kashmir Chilly : Fruits are long, fleshy and deep red in color. Suitable for cultivation in winter.

Hot Portugal:
The fruits are deep green in color but gets red when mature. The fruit are 11-15 cm long and gives an average yield of 40-50 qtl/acre.

Soorajmukhi: Short plant, deep color fruits, red at maturity and is excessive bitter in taste. Fruits are in bunches of 8-12. It gives an average yield of 31-40qtl/acre.

Sweet Banana: Fruits are light yelow in color which becomes red at maturity. The fruits are 18-20cm long and are excessive bitter in taste. It gives an average yield of 40qtl/acre.

Hungarian Wax: Fruits are red at maturity, 10-16cm long and is less bitter in taste. It gives an average yield of 31-33qtl/acre.

Other States variety

Pusa Jwala:
Plants are dwarf, bushy, light green. Fruits are 9-10 cm long; light green, highly pungent, fairly tolerant to thrips and mites. Average yield of 85qtl/acre (green) and 18qtl/acre (dry).

Pusa Sadabahar: Plants are erect, perennial (2-3 years), 60-80cm tall, fruits are 6-8cm long, born in clusters with 6-14 fruits/cluster, ripe fruits dark red, highly pungent, resistant to CMV, TMV and leaf curl complex, first picking in 75-80 days after transplanting. It gives an average yield of 95qtl/acre (green) and 20qtl/acre (dry).

NP-46A: High yielding variety with medium size fruit. It gives average yield of 40qtl/acre.

G 5: Chilly is thick, glossy with deep red color. Gives average yield of 20qtl/acre.

G 3:
Suitable for cultivation under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Chilly are having high pungency. Gives average yield of 16qtl/acre.

Pant C 2, Jawahar, Mathaniya Long, RCH 1


Kashi Vishwanath

Sankeshwar: Mild flavor, long and red color variety. It is suitable for export.

Byadgi (Kaddi) :  Mild flavor, long and bright red color variety.

Dabbi: Mild flavor, long and thick blackish variety.

Tomato chilly

Tadappally

S9 Mundu, Sattur s4, Sangli Sannam, Nalchetti, Nagpur, Madras Pari, , Kanthari white, Guntur Sannam, Ellachipur Sannam.

Land Preparation

Carry out ploughing for 2-3 times and clod crushing after each ploughing. Add compost or Farm Yard Manure @150-200qtl/ acre and mix well in the soil 15-20 days before sowing. Do not cultivate Tomato and Chilly crop in same field or in nearby field, as pest and diseases are similar. Also spread anthracnose and bacterial disease.
 

Sowing

Time of sowing
Sowing of chilly can be done round the year. For kharif crop, May-June and for Summer crop, February – March is optimum time for chilly plantation.

Spacing

In Kharif season, use spacing of 60-75 cm x 45 cm and for irrigated areas, use spacing of 60cmx60cm.

Sowing Depth
In nursery sow seeds at depth of 3-5cm and then covered with soil. 

Method of sowing

Transplanting of seedling in main field.
Form raised beds of 1m width and convenient length. Mix sterilized cocopeat@300kg with 5kg neem cake along with Azospirillum and phosphobacteria each@1kg. Sow the treated seed in protrays@1seed per cell. Cover the seeds with cocopeat and keep the trays one above the other and cover with a polythene sheet till germination starts. After sowing of seeds in nursery, cover bed with 400 mesh nylon net or thin white cloth. It helps to protect seedlings from pest-disease attack. After 6 days, place the protrays with germinated seedlings individually on the raised beds inside the shade net. Water with rose can everyday upto seed germination. Drench with 19:19:19 @ 0.5% (5gm/Ltr) at 18 days after sowing.
 

Seed

Seed Rate
For varieties, use seed rate of 200gm and 80-100gm/acre for hybrids.

Seed Treatment
To protect crop from various soil borne disease seed treatment is necessary. Before sowing do seed treatment with Thiram@3gm or Carbendazim@2gm/kg. After chemical treatment, treat seed with Trichoderma@5gram/kg or Pseudomonas fluorescens@10gram/kg. Keep it in shade. And use it for sowing. Do Watering with rosecan on daily basis. Drench the nursery with Copper oxychloride@2.5gram/ltr of water at 15 days interval to prevent crop from damping off disease.
To protect against wilt, sucking pest, Dip roots for 15min in Trichoderma harzianum@20 gram/Ltr+0.5ml/Ltr Imidacloprid before transplanting. Seedling inoculation with VAM supplemented with nitrogen fixing bacteria, save Super phosphate by 50% along with saving of 25% nitrogen application.
 

Fertilizer

Fertilizer Requirement (kg/acre)

  UREA SSP MOP
Rainfed 110 100 35
Irrigated 182 150 40


Nutrient Requiement (kg/acre)

  NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS POTASH
Rainfed 50 16 20
Irrigated 84 24 24

 

For rainfed areas, apply Nitrogen@50kg, Phosphorus@16kg and Potash@20kg in form of Urea@110kg, SSP@100kg and MOP@35kg/acre. Apply whole quantity of Phosphorus and Potash and half quantity of Nitrogen before transplantation. Remaining quantity of Nitrogen should be applied in two equal part 30 and 50days after transplantation.

For irrigated areas, overall it required, Nitrogen@84kg (Urea@182kg), Phosphorus@24kg (SSP@150kg) and Potash@24kg per acre (MoP@40kg). Apply 24kg of Nitrogen (Urea@52kg), full dose of Phosphorus and half quantity of Potash before transplantation. Apply remaining quantity of nitrogen, in five equal doses and Potash in three equal doses. Apply top dressing of Nitrogen@12kg (Urea@26kg) on 45th, 60th, 75th, 95th and 115th day after sowing. And Potash@4kg on 45th, 60th and 75th day after sowing.

WSF: 10-15 days after transplanting, take spray of 19:19:19 along with micronutrient@2.5 to 3gm/Ltr of water. Due to low temperature, plant absorbs fewer nutrients and growth gets affected. In such cases foliar spray helps in growth of plants. In vegetative growth stage take spray of 19:19:19 or 12:61:00 @ 3-5 gm/Ltr. For better growth and more yield, Spray with 50ml Brassinolide per acre in 150Ltr of water at 40-50 days after transplanting for two times at 10 days intervals.

To obtain good fruit quality along with good yield, take spray of 12:61:00 (Monoammonium Phosphate)@10 gram/Ltr before flowering. When flowering starts, in initial days take spray of Boron@25 gram/10liter of water. It will help to control flower and fruit dropping. Sometime black spots is observed on fruits, these are due to calcium deficiency. Take spray of Calcium nitrate@2gm/Ltr of water. In high temperature Flower drop is seen, spray with NAA@50ppm (5 ml/20L water) when crop is in flowering stage. Give one spray of Sulphate of potash(00:00:50+18S) during fruit development stage@3-5gm/ltr of water. It will give good fruit development and color. Fruit cracking reduces fruit quality and lowers prices up to 20%. Take spray of chelated Boron (Solubor)@200gm/acre/200Ltr water at fruit ripening stage. To improve plant growth, flowering and fruit set, Spray with seaweed extract (Biozyme/Dhanzyme)@3-4ml/Ltr water twice a month. Maintain good soil moisture.
 

Weed Control

Do frequent weeding, hoeing and earthing up and keep field weed free till 45 days. If weed left uncontrolled then it will reduce crop yield upto 70-90%. Before transplantation, apply pendimethalin@1 ltr/acre in main field. If weed intensity is high, take pre emergence spray of Sencor@800ml/acre. Mulching is also an effective way to reduce soil temperature along with weed control.

Irrigation

In winter, apply irrigation with interval of 6 to 7 days and in summer month, apply with interval of 4-5 days depending upon soil moisture. Flowering stage is critical for irrigation, water stress during this stage can leads to flower drop and adversely affecting fruiting and productivity. According to various researches, it is found that, half inch irrigation at every fortnight causes maximum penetration of roots and thus gives high yield.

Plant protection

fruit_borer-chilly.png
  • Pest and their control:

Fruit borer: Caterpillar eat leaves of crop afterward they enter into fruit and caused heavy loss in yield management. Collect and destroyed damaged fruits and grown up caterpillars. Set up pheromone traps for Helicoverpa armigera or Spodoptera litura at 5 Nos./acre.

To control pod borers apply poison bait balls made up of bran-5 kg, Carbaryl-500 gm, Jaggery-500 gm and sufficient amount of water. If Infestation of Fruit borers is observed. spray Chlorpyrifos + Cypermethrin (Nurel-D/Amla) @30 ml+Teepol@0.5 ml in 12 Ltr of water with power sprayer. Or spray with Emamectin benzoate 5% SG @ 4 gm/10 Ltr of water or Flubendiamide 20 WDG@6 gm/10 litre of water.

mite_chilly.jpg

Mite: These are widely distributed pest observed throughout the world. It attacks on several crops like potato, chilli, beans, cotton, tobacco, curcurbit, castor, jute, coffee, lemon, citrus, blackgram, cowpea, pepper, tomato, sweet potato, mango, papaya, brinjal, guava. Nymphs and adults feed exclusively on the lower surface of the leaves. Infected leaves gives cup shape appearance. Heavy infestation results in defoliation, bud shedding and drying of leaves.
 
If Infestation of yellow mite & thrips is observed in field, spray of Chlorfenapyr@1.5ml/Ltr, Abamectin@1.5ml/Ltr are found effective. Mite is a serious pest and it may cause yield loss up to 80%. For effective control spray Spiromesifen 22.9SC@200ml/acre/180Ltr of water.

aphid chilly.png

Aphid: They attack mostly in winter month and later stage of crop. They suck sap from the leaf. They excrete honey like substance and developed Sooty mold i.e blackish colour fungus on the Calyx and pods thus deteriorate quality of product. Aphids also work as Important insect vectors for chilli mosaic. Mosaic disease transmitted by aphids cause 20-30 per cent loss in yield.

To control take spray of Acephate 75SP@5gm/Ltr or Methyl demeton 25EC@2ml/Ltr of water. Soil application of granular insecticides viz Carbofuran, Phorate@4-8kg/acre on 15 and 60 days after transplanting were also effective.

 

white_fly chilly.jpg

White fly: The nymphs and adults of White fly suck the cell sap from the leaves and weaken the plants. They secrete honey dew on which black sooty mould develops on leaves. They also transmit leaf curl diseases. To check infestation use yellow sticky traps coated with grease and sticky oils.

In case of severe infestation to control take spray of Acetamiprid 20SP (@4gm/10Ltr of water or Triazophos@2.5ml/litre or Profenophos@2ml/litre of water. Repeat the spray after 15 days.
 

powdery_mildew-chilly.png
  • Disease and their control:

Powdery Mildew: Patchy, White powdery growth appears on lower side of leaves. It parasitizes the plant using it as a food source. It commonly occur on older leaves just before or at fruit set. But it can develope at any stage of crop development. In severe infestation it causes defoliation.

Avoid water lodging in field. Keep field clean. To control spray with Hexaconazole(Contaf, Sitara) along with sticker @1 ml/Ltr of water. In case of Sudden rain, chances of powdery mildew. Mild infestation take spray of water soluble Sulphur @ 20 gm/10 Ltr of water 2-3 times with interval of 10 days.

phytophthora_blight chilly.jpg

Phytophthora blight: It is caused by the fungus Phytophthora capsici. It is soil borne and commonly observed on soil with low drainage capacity and areas where proper cultural practices have not been maintained. Also cloudy weather is favorable for spread of this disease.
 
Avoid crop rotation with brinjal, tomato, cucumber, pumpkin for atleast three years. Spray with Copper oxychloride@250gm/150Ltr of water.

thrips chilly.jpg

Thrips: Commonly observed pest. Mostly observed in dry weather. They suck sap from the foliage and results in curling of leaves. Also causes flower drop.
To check severity of thrips incidence, keep blue sticky traps @6-8 per acre. Also to reduce the incidence spray Verticillium lecani@5gm/Ltr water
If incidence of thrips is more, then take spray of Imidacloprid 17.8SL or Fipronil@1ml/Ltr water or Fipronil 80%WP@2.5ml/Ltr of water or Acephate 75% WP@1.0gm/Ltr or do drenching of Thiamethoxam 25% WG@1.0gm/Ltr of water.

wilt chilly.png

Wilt and damping off: Moist and poorly drain soil causes damping off disease. It is soil borne disease. Water soaking and shrivelling of stem occurs. Seedlings killed before emergence. If it appears in nursary the entire lot of seedling may get destroyed.

To control wilt, drench near by soil with Copper oxychloride@250gm or Carbendazim@200gm/150Ltr of water. To control Wilting of plants due to root rot do drenching with Trichoderma bio fungus@2.5kg/500Ltr water,near to roots of plants.

anthrocanse chilly.jpg

Anthracnose: It is caused by the fungi Colletotrichum piperatum and C.capsici and is promoted by warm temperatures, high moisture. It is characterised by black spots that are formed on infected parts. spots are usually circular, water-soaked and sunken with black margins.The fruits with many spots drop off prematurely resulting in heavy loss of yield.

If Infestation of Anthracnose is observed. To control spray Propiconazole or Hexaconazole @1ml/Ltr of water.

yellow mosaic Virus chilly.JPG

Yellow Mosaic: Light and green patches observed on leaves. In early stage plant growth get stops. Yellowing, chlorotic ring spots on leaves and fruits. Select healthy and disease free seeds for cultivation. Avoid monocropping in chilly crop. Raise two rows of maize or sorghum for every five rows of chilly against wind direction. Uproot and destroyed infected plant away from field.

Recommendations given for aphids may be adopted. (take spray of Acephate 75SP@1gm/Ltr or Methyl demeton 25EC@2ml/Ltr of water. Soil application of granular insecticides viz Carbofuran, Phorate@4-8kg/acre on 15 and 60 days after transplanting.

bactrial_leaf_spot chilly.jpg

Bacterial Leaf Spot: It is observed mostly in rainy season. On young leaves the spots are yellowish green, on older leaves they are dark and water soaked. Severely affected leaves become chlorotic and defoliation occurs. It observed on stem also. Stem infection leads to formation of cankerous growth and wilting of branches. On fruit round water soaked spots with pale yellow border is observed.

To control various leaf spot and yellowing diseases, spray Propiconazole 25%EC@ 200ml or Chlorothalonil 75%WP @400-600gm per 150-200Ltr of water. If bacterial leaf spot infestation is observed, To control spray with Streptocycline@1gm +Copper oxychloride@400gm/200Ltr of water.

Harvesting

Chilly can be harvested green or left to ripen on the plant. The ripened colour will depend on the variety grown. To increases no. of pickings, Spray Urea@10gm/Ltr and Soluble K@10gm/Ltr (1% solution each) with 15 days interval during harvesting time. For canning purpose they are harvested when fruits are of red color. Chilly use for drying purpose are harvested at full ripe stage.

Post-Harvest

This include 1) Drying 2) Grading and Packing 3) Storage