Rabi & Horticulture Crop Guides
Explore Rabi and horticulture crop guides with practical tips on cultivation, nutrition, pest control, disease management, and better crop growth.
55 articles
15 minChrysanthemum Farming in India: Types, Varieties, Propagation, Planting Time, Pinching, Disbudding, Nutrition, Pests, Diseases, Harvest and Yield
Chrysanthemum (guldaudi, shevanti) is a short-day flower: it makes flower buds when nights lengthen, so most Indian crops bloom in November and December. ICAR describes the uses as cut flowers, loose flowers for garlands and worship, pot plants, exhibition and interior decoration, and garden bedding. Terminal cuttings of 5 to 7 cm are taken from mother plants in mid June to end July and root in 2 to 3 weeks. TNAU plants at 30 x 30 cm, about 111,000 plants per ha, and quotes 20 t per ha from the plant crop. ICAR gives 60,000 to 80,000 cut flowers per acre or 20 to 50 q per acre of loose flowers. Pinch spray types at 4 and 7 weeks, disbud standard types, stake, and keep nights dark and drainage good. Main problems are aphids, thrips, leaf miner, red spider mite, Fusarium wilt, rust and Septoria leaf spot.
15 minPurple Blotch in Onion: Causes, Symptoms, Weather, Resistant Varieties and How to Manage It
Purple blotch is a leaf disease of onion caused by the fungus Alternaria porri. It starts as small water-soaked spots with a white centre that turn brown and then purple with dark rings, and it can kill leaves and stop bulbs from filling. ICAR-DOGR co-authors cite Indian yield losses of 2.5 to 85 percent. It spreads fastest in warm, humid, wet weather, which is why kharif and late kharif crops suffer most. Thrips feeding wounds help the fungus in. No onion variety is immune: in the ICAR-IARI net-house test none of 34 onion genotypes was resistant. Start protection when the first spots show, because in the ICAR-IARI test the disease rose sharpest one to two weeks after infection and peaked at five weeks. Always read the product label and follow your state advisory.
16 minCocoon Yield and Quality in Silkworm Rearing: Shell Ratio, Filament Length, Denier, Yield per 100 DFLs and How to Improve Them
Cocoon quality is judged on weight, shell ratio, filament length, reelability and denier. FAO reports 19 to 25 percent shell in newly evolved hybrids and 600 to 1,500 m of filament, about 80 percent of it reelable. Yield and quality are set by clean disinfection, warm and humid chawki, cooler and drier late age, 1,200 to 1,400 kg of good leaf per 100 DFLs, moult handling, mounting at 27 to 28 degrees C, and sorting out defective cocoons before reeling. Follow your state sericulture department for exact doses.
14 minLeek Farming in India: Climate, Varieties, Planting Depth, Spacing, Blanching, Fertiliser, Pests, Diseases and Yield per Acre
Leek (Allium porrum) is a non-bulbing onion relative grown for its blanched white stem. ICAR-linked authors say commercial leek farming is not practised in India and the crop is mostly a kitchen-garden vegetable, so there is no official Indian package of practices. The two Indian-named cultivars are Palam Paushtik (about 140 to 150 days, 300 to 350 q per ha, per CSKHPKV) and PPL-1. Raise seedlings to pencil thickness, plant them into a trench 10 to 15 cm deep, and hill soil up gradually so 15 to 20 cm of the stem stays white (OMAFRA, Canada). OMAFRA gives 200 to 250 kg N per ha split in three. Leek-specific problems are onion maggot, cutworm, rust, white tip and white rot. Cost and profit per acre could not be sourced for India.
18 minLow-Cost Mushroom Farming for Beginners: Best Varieties, Room Needs, Substrate, Spawn, Steps, Yield and Selling
For a first mushroom crop with little money, start with oyster mushroom in the cooler months (Oct to Feb in the plains) or with milky or paddy straw mushroom in the hot months (Mar to Oct). All three grow on cheap straw in a simple, ventilated room or shed with a sprayer and thermometer. Oyster needs 20 to 30 C, milky 30 to 35 C at fruiting, paddy straw 25 to 38 C. Skip button mushroom at first. Begin with about 10 to 20 bags or 2 beds, learn the humidity routine, then scale. Buy spawn from a trusted lab, keep straw below 70 percent moisture, and line up a buyer before the first flush.
21 minTomato Farming in India: Varieties, Season, Spacing, Fertigation, Pests, Diseases, Yield and Cost per Acre
Tomato is grown across India for much of the year, but each region has its own planting window, so confirm yours with the state agricultural university or KVK. Pick the growth habit first: determinate types stay short and bear over a shorter window, indeterminate types need staking and give a long harvest. Raise seedlings under net for about 25 days, plant 60 x 45 cm (determinate) or 75 x 30 cm (indeterminate), stake at 30 days, and feed in splits. Water evenly to avoid blossom end rot and cracking. Watch for fruit borer, Tuta absoluta, whitefly and leaf curl virus, then early and late blight and wilts, and use only sprays registered for tomato on the CIB&RC list. A Raipur sample study and a fill-in cost sheet are given for costing.
15 minButton vs Oyster vs Milky Mushroom Farming: Temperature, Substrate, Cycle, Yield, Shelf Life and Which to Choose
All three are worth growing, but for different conditions. Button needs a cool room (16 to 18 C for fruiting), compost and the most capital and skill. Oyster is the easiest and cheapest: any cereal straw, no composting, species that fruit from about 15 to 32 C, a published production cost of about Rs 35 per kg and a price of Rs 100 to 120 per kg (KVK Deoria, 2020). Milky is the hot-weather choice: 30 to 35 C, straw-based, 40 to 70 kg per 100 kg dry straw, and 3 to 4 days of keeping quality at room temperature. Start with oyster, add milky for the hot months, and take button only if you can hold the cool temperature.
17 minTypes of Edible Mushrooms in India: Button, Oyster, Milky, Paddy Straw, Shiitake, Reishi, Cordyceps and More - Which Can You Farm and Which Pay
India farms mainly four mushrooms: white button (cool season, compost and a cooling-friendly room), oyster (easiest, straw, wide temperature range), paddy straw (hot and humid, very fast) and milky (warm climates, needs a soil casing layer). Shiitake, reishi, cordyceps militaris, lion's mane and enoki are niche, controlled-environment crops that sell to a small, premium market. Button was 73 percent of Indian output in ICAR data (another ICAR article says more than 85 percent), oyster 16, paddy straw 7, milky 3. Beginners start with oyster, or paddy straw and milky in hot regions. Never eat a wild mushroom on a guess: India has about 1,200 documented species and only 300 to 315 are considered edible.
22 minBrinjal (Baingan) Farming in India: Season, Varieties, Spacing, Fertiliser, Pests, Diseases, Yield, Cost and Profit per Acre
Brinjal is a warm-season crop that needs a frost-free spell. Nursery seedlings are ready in 4 to 6 weeks; sow in mid June for the kharif crop, end September for rabi and mid January for the spring-summer crop (NHB). Plant 60 x 60 to 90 x 60 cm apart, put in 25 t per ha of FYM (about 10 t per acre) and split the nitrogen. Expect 20 to 30 t per ha from open-pollinated varieties and 60 to 80 t per ha from hybrids under TNAU trial conditions; a Maharashtra grower survey averaged 15.8 t per ha at a cost of about Rs 61,400 per acre. The big losses are shoot and fruit borer, little leaf, bacterial wilt and Phomopsis. Pick resistant varieties, rotate away from tomato, potato and okra, and remove infested shoots every week.
18 minIntegrated Pest Management (IPM) in Banana: Weevils, Aphids, Thrips, Nematodes, Sigatoka and Panama Wilt, Stage by Stage
Integrated pest management (IPM) in banana means starting with clean, virus-free planting material, keeping the field sanitary, watching the crop on a schedule, using traps and bio-agents first, and spraying only when scouting shows a real problem.
25 minBeetroot Farming in India: Sowing Time, Varieties, Seed Rate, Fertiliser, Diseases, Yield, Cost and Profit per Acre
Beetroot is a cool-season root crop. Sow October to November in the north Indian plains at about 2.5 to 4 kg seed per acre on ridges, and harvest about 8 to 10 weeks later. This guide covers varieties, fertiliser, irrigation, pests, diseases, yield and cost per acre.
26 minIntegrated Disease Management (IDM) in Pomegranate: Bacterial Blight, Wilt, Fruit Spot, Anthracnose and Heart Rot, with a Stage-Wise Spray Schedule
Pomegranate disease management is a package, not a single spray: clean planting material, a rest period, pruning with Bordeaux paste, sanitation, balanced feeding, bio-agents and stage-wise sprays for telya, wilt, fruit spot and anthracnose.
