Tip of the day – Page 172

Tips for Disease-Free Nursery Raising of Vegetables –

choose healthy seeds for showing.
The seeds should be treated with recommended fungicide before sowing.
The continuous raising of the nursery in the same plot should be avoided.
The topsoil of the nursery should be treated with Carbendazim @ 5 gm/square m. area of the soil and the nursery should be drenched with Carbendazim @ 2gm/litre of water fortnightly.
Soil solarization by spreading 250 gauge polythene sheet over the bed for 30 days before sowing in summer season should be done.
Application of bio-control agent Trichoderma viride in soil @ 500 gram/acre is also found effective to control damping-off to a considerable extent.

one should apply About 8-10 t/acre of FYM at the time of field preparation.
30 kg Urea, 70kg single super phosphate and 35 kg muriate of potash per acre is applied at the time of last ploughing.
Another 30 kg urea should be top dressed in two split doses, one at 8-10 leaf stage and second at the flowering stage.

SN	Maincrop	Intercrop
1.	Soya bean	maize, peagonpea	For intercultural or mixed crops, the growth rate of vegetables, distribution of roots, Nutritious nature, attacks of pests and diseases, market demand etc. should be considered. The cropping system should not be permanent and the weather, pest and diseases attacks, market price and demand and should be changed according to the grower.
2.	Okra	Coriander, spinach
3.	Cotton	groundnut, green gram, black gram maize.
4.	Chilli	radish, carrot.
5.	Mango	onion, Turmeric

To prevent bulb splitting in onion, Use uniform irrigation and fertilization practices.
Use of slow-growing onion varieties can reduce the incidences of this disorder.
Spray 00:00: 50 @ 1kg/acre.

Uneven irrigation of onion fields increases the chances of this disorder.
Fields that are over irrigated, allowed to dry completely and then over irrigated again often have many split bulbs.
Bulb mites are frequently associated with bulb splitting.
The first symptom is observed as the rotting of the basal portion of the bulb.
Secondary growth of the affected bulb often occurs when several small bulbs protruded from the spilt basal portion.

Watermelon responds very much to irrigation but it can not withstand waterlogged conditions.
It is generally cultivated as a spring-summer crop in which the frequency of irrigation is very important.
The crop should be irrigated at 3-5 days intervals.
Soil moisture stress during pre-flowering, flowering, and fruit development stage drastically reduce yield.
Irrigation should be stopped during ripening as it adversely affects fruit quality and promotes fruit cracking.

Watermelons can grow in many kinds of soil but prefer a light, sandy, fertile loam that drains easily.
Add generous amounts of manure, compost and leaves to your field and work the soil well prior to planting.
Fields should be prepared thoroughly by plowing and harrowing and removing the different types of plant debris.
A gentle, south-facing slope is ideal.
It should also be pulverized and leveled; furrows are made 2 m apart.

The time of sowing watermelon is from November to March.
After the November to December sowing time, the plant should be protected from frosting. This is the reason most sowing is done from January to March.
In the hilly areas, watermelons are sown from March to April.