Tip of the day – Page 171

Field preparation of Cucumber

In the initial stage, the field is ploughed 4-5 times to make the land Friable and before the final ploughing, add 10-15 tons of ripe cow dung manure per acre of land.
If the soil is infested with nematodes & white ants or red ants, apply Carbofuran at the rate of 10 kg/acre.
After levelling the field, 60 cm wide channels are made at a distance of 2.0- to 2.5 cm.
The length of the channel depends on the source of irrigation, season, rainfall and slope land.

Bitter gourd cannot tolerate drought or water stagnation.
Water the crop immediately after sowing or planting on the third day and then once a week depends upon the soil moisture.
Maintain good soil moisture in the upper 50 cm. of soil where the majority of roots are located.

The major symptoms of downy mildew in pumpkin crop are as follows-

Water-soaked lesions are formed on the lower surface of the leaves.
Lesions appear first on the older leaves and then progress on the younger leaves.
As the lesions expand, they may remain yellow or become dry and brown.
Affected vines do not bear fruit properly.

The moisture should not be more than 10-12% in the grain for safe storage.
After placing the grain in the buffer, the closet or in the room, two tablets of 3 grams of aluminium phosphide should be kept among each tonne of wheat.

SN	Crop Name	Important variety (company’s name)
1.	Bitter gourd	Nagesh (Hyveg), Amanshri, US1315 (Nunhems), Akash (VNR)
2.	Ridge gourd	Aarti
3.	Pumpkin	Kohinoor (pahuja), VNR 11 (VNR)
4.	Okara	Radhika, Vinas Plus (Golden), Singham (Nunhems), Shatabdi (Rashi)
5.	coriander	surbhi (Namdhari), LS 800 (pahuja )

Uproot the infected plants.
Cultivate of resistant/tolerant varieties like Pusa Jwala, Pant C-1, Pusa- Sadabahar, Panjab lal etc.
Spray Acetamiprid 20% SP at the rate of 130gram/acre at regular intervals to reduce the vectors, or
You can also Spray Fipronil 40% + Imidachloprid 40% WG @ 40 gram/acre.

The main symptom of this disease is the appearance of dark green and yellow spots on the leaves.
Another symptom includes the appearance of Light pits and blisters
Yellowing and distortion of younger leaves, followed by conspicuous mosaic.
Severe mottling with light and dark green patches get Scattered all over the leaf surface.
Slight curling, marginal rolling and shortening of leaves are other common symptoms of mosaic virus.
This disease spreads through whitefly.