Whitefly attack on cotton near Bathinda causing leaf curl and sooty mould. Need a control plan and resistant practices.
How to control whitefly in cotton (kapas) in Punjab?
GGurpreet Singh1yr ago · 518 views
5 Answers
🌾Farmer.in Krishi TeamExpert ✓1yr ago
Whitefly in Punjab cotton is best managed early and through the whole belt, not after sooty mould appears. Start with yellow sticky traps to monitor, keep fields and bunds free of weeds like congress grass that host whitefly, and avoid excess nitrogen which makes plants soft and attractive. On threshold of about 6 to 8 adults per leaf, spray recommended insecticides and rotate groups so you do not repeat the same chemistry, since whitefly builds resistance fast. Neem based sprays and conserving natural enemies help in early stages. Do not mix random cocktails. Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana issues a season specific spray calendar each year, follow that PAU advisory for current approved molecules and doses.
🌾Farmer.in Krishi TeamExpert ✓1yr ago
A complementary point on host crops, whitefly also breeds on nearby brinjal, cotton volunteers, and weedy patches around tubewells. If you clean only the cotton field but leave those reservoirs, the flies keep coming. Coordinate weed and volunteer removal with neighbours and confirm the current PAU spray schedule before mixing anything.
HHarjinder Singh1yr ago
After the big whitefly years we learned the hard way. Now our village sprays together and we clean weeds before sowing. Spraying alone never worked because flies just came back from the neighbour field.
BBaldev Brar1yr ago
Check the underside of leaves early in the morning when the adults are sluggish, that is when sticky traps and any spray work best. By midday they fly up in a cloud and the spray just misses them. Counting on the lower and middle canopy leaves gives a truer threshold than only looking at the top.
SSukhwinder Kaur1yr ago
Pyrethroids and repeated broad spectrum sprays often make whitefly worse because they kill the natural enemies first. We saw the cleanest fields among farmers who held off and let ladybirds and lacewings build up early, then only sprayed a recommended molecule when counts truly crossed the limit.