My chilli seedlings often get virus and damping off in the nursery before I even transplant. How do I raise a clean nursery?
A clean nursery is half the battle in chilli because virus and damping off that start here follow the crop to the field. Raise the nursery on raised beds with good drainage or in pro trays, use treated, good quality seed, and do not sow too densely or over water, since crowded wet beds collapse from damping off. Soil solarisation or a recommended soil treatment of the bed before sowing reduces soil borne fungi. To keep out thrips and whitefly that bring leaf curl and virus, raise the seedlings under insect proof net or in a protected nursery, which is now standard in the Guntur and Prakasam belt. Use yellow and blue sticky traps and remove any virus affected seedlings. Transplant only healthy, sturdy, disease free seedlings. Ask your KVK for the right seed treatment, soil treatment and net nursery design for chilli.
Switching to a net covered nursery cut down my leaf curl problem a lot. The seedlings reach the field clean and the murda comes much later.
Pro trays with a clean potting mix solved my damping off. In the open soil beds the seedlings kept rotting at the base in patches. The trays drain well and are not sitting in old infected soil, and I can move the strong seedlings out cleanly.
Solarising the nursery bed before sowing helped where I could not afford trays. Covering the moist bed with clear plastic in the hot weeks before sowing reduced the soil fungus and the damping off was much less. Raised beds so water does not stand also made a difference.
Get free daily mandi prices, MSP changes, scheme cut-offs and weather alerts - and your own Kisan ID.
Today's rates, MSP moves, scheme deadlines and weather - the moment they matter.
Join Bharat Annadata Sangh free - get a digital farmer ID card and free answers from our Krishi Team.
100% free · No spam · Prices from Agmarknet · Unsubscribe anytime
