Rabi & Horticulture Crop Guides
Explore Rabi and horticulture crop guides with practical tips on cultivation, nutrition, pest control, disease management, and better crop growth.
6 articles
5 minChana Pod Borer and Mustard Aphid: Early Warning Signs, ETL Values and IPM Control
For chana pod borer control, install 5 pheromone traps and 20 bird perches per hectare at flowering, and act when you find one mature larva per metre row or 2 young larvae per 10 plants. For mustard aphid, spray only when 10% of plants carry 26 to 28 aphids on the top 10 cm of shoot.
5 minFrost and Cold Wave: How to Protect Field Crops and Garden Plants
Frost protection in crops means keeping plant tissue above freezing on cold, clear, still nights. The simplest steps are a light irrigation in the evening when frost is forecast, covering nurseries and young plants overnight, and, for mustard, gram and rajma, a spray of 0.1% sulphuric acid or 500 ppm thiourea as advised in agromet bulletins.
5 minPotato Late Blight Control: A Prevention Calendar to Follow Before the Disease Hits
Potato late blight control depends on spraying before symptoms appear. Start a protective mancozeb or chlorothalonil spray (0.2 to 0.25%) when forecasts show 10 to 20 C with high humidity or fog for more than 18 hours. At the first lesion, switch to a systemic such as cymoxanil + mancozeb or dimethomorph, repeating every 7 to 10 days.
8 minChana Sowing: Seed Treatment to Prevent Wilt
Treat chana seed in this order: a fungicide or Trichoderma first, an insecticide if termites are a problem, and Rhizobium plus PSB last, just before sowing. Typical doses are carbendazim-based fungicide at 2 to 2.5 g per kg, Trichoderma at 4 to 10 g per kg, and Rhizobium and PSB at about 200 g per 10 kg seed.
6 minMustard Sowing and Fertilizer Schedule for High Oil Yield
For irrigated mustard, ICAR recommends 80 kg N, 40 kg P2O5, 40 kg K2O and 40 kg sulphur per hectare. Apply half the nitrogen and all P, K and S at sowing, and the rest of the nitrogen at the first irrigation, 30 to 45 days after sowing. Add zinc and boron where soils are deficient.
7 minWheat Sowing Planner: Sowing Time, Seed Rate, Varieties and Basal Dose by Zone
Sow timely wheat from 1 to 15 November in the north-western plains and 10 to 20 November in central and eastern India, at 100 kg seed per hectare (40 kg per acre). For late sowing after 25 November, raise seed to 125 kg per hectare and choose a late-sown variety recommended for your zone.