Rabi Crops- Pea, Potato & Chili in Punjab

Pea

Improved Varieties

  • Early maturing varieties: AP-3, Matar Ageta-7, Matar Ageta-6 and Arkel
  • Main season varieties: Punjab-89 and Mithi Phali
  • Sowing and Seed Rate: Sowing from mid-October to mid- November give the best crop in the plains and spacing should be 30×7.5 cm for early and 30×10 cm for main season varieties by inoculating with Rhizobium leguminosarum. Use seed 45 kg for early maturing and 30 kg for main season variety per acre
  • Manures and Fertilizers: Apply 8 tonnes of farmyard manure, 20 kg of N (45 kg Urea) and 25 kg P2O5 (155 kg Superphosphate) per acre before sowing
  • Weed Control: For chemical weed control use Stomp 30 EC (pendimethalin) @1.0 litre per acre within 2 days of sowing

Potato

Improved Varieties

  • Early Varieties: Kufri Surya, Kufri Pukhraj, Kufri Ashoka, Kufri Chandramukhi
  • Mid-Season Varieties: Kufri Pushkar, Kufri Bahar, Kufri Jyoti
  • Late Varieties: Kufri Badshah, Kufri Sindhuri
  • Processing Varieties: Kufri Frysona, Kufri Chipsona-3, Kufri       Chipsona- 1
  • Seed Rate: For autumn sowing 13-18 q/acre seed tubers of 40- 50 g weight should be used for planting. If the seed raised from autumn crop is to be used for spring planting, its dormancy should be broken by dipping cut tubers in a solution of 1% Thiourea and 1 ppm Gibberellic Acid (one ml per 100 litres of water) for an hour followed by air drying the treated tuber pieces for 24 hours in thin layers in shade
  • Time of Sowing: The best time for sowing is last week of September to mid-October for the autumn crop and the second fortnight of January for the spring crop
  • Method of Planting: For mechanized planting, the spacing between the rows and tuber should be kept 65×18.5 cm or 75 cm×15 cm respectively depending upon the available machinery
  • Earthing-up: Use a double mould board plough or a ridger for earthing up after 25-30 days of sowing
  • Weed Control: Application of paddy straw mulch @24 q/acre immediately after planting. Sencor/Tanoshi 70 WP (metribuzin) @ 200 g as pre-emergence

Chili

  • Hybrids: CH-27, CH-3, CH-1
  • Varieties: Punjab Sindhuri, Punjab Tej, Punjab Surkh
  • Sowing Time: Sow the seed during end October to mid November.
  • Seed Rate: Seed rate is 200 g per acre when sown in the nursery. Sow nursery in one marla (25m2) area to transplant one acre
  • Nursery: To ensure successful growing of healthy seedlings from costly hybrid seed of chilli, nursery should be grown under polyhouse (size 24’ × 13’ × 6’) made of UV stabilized low density polyethylene film of 200 microns (800 guage) thickness
Time of sowing under polyhouseTime of transplanting
a) Third week of NovemberMid February
b) First week of FebruaryEnd of April
  • Spacing: Plant thick and stout seedlings on ridges at 75 cm apart with plant to plant spacing of 45 cm as they perfoem better than tall seedlings

Growth Regulator: Due to high temperature in May-June dropping of flowers take place. Two foliar sprays of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) at 10-day interval @4g after 45 and 55 days of transplanting to increases the green and red ripe fruit yield of chilli

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