Scribd
Upload
20 views4 pages

Seed & Sowing

Uploaded by

Srijani Patra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
20 views4 pages

Seed & Sowing

Uploaded by

Srijani Patra
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

SEED & SOWING

Prerequisites for sowing:


1. Good tilth
2. Optimum soil moisture at sowing depth
3. Manures and fertilizers
Seed material:
1. Seeds (grains used for sowing)
2. Veg propagules (stem cutling’s rooted slips, tubers, rhizomes, etc)
Stem cutlings – sugarcane, rose
Rooted slips – forage crops. (Fodder crops)
Tubers – potato
Rhizomes – turmeric
Characteristics of seed or seed material:
1. Purity:
Free from rogues (offtypes)
Free from other crop seeds
Free from weed seed.
Free from inert material
2. Fully matured and well developed.
3. Free from storage pests and seed born diseases
Ex. Red rot in sugarcane
Tikka leaf spot in groundnut
4. Free from dormancy (dor. prob are seen in groundnut, rice, sunflower)
5. Viable (soybean looses viability quickly)
6. High percentage of germination (98-99%)
(germi. Percentage in many grasses is 20-25%)

METHODS OF SOWING
Direct seeding
Broad casting Line sowing
Drilling Dibbling
Transplanting
Time of sowing:
1. Sowing very early in the season may not be advantageous.
Eg: sowing rainfed ground nut early may result in failure of crop if there is
prolonged dry spell from the 2nd week of june to 2nd week of july.
2. Delayed sowing invariably reduces yields
a. Eg: rainfed sorghum yields are reduced due to delay in sowing beyond June
reason – sorghum sown late is subjected to severe atlack of shoot borer.
b. Eg: In rainfed groundnut sowing beyond July reduced the yields of all varieties
3. Advancing sowing of Rabi sorghum. From November-September to October.
Increase the yields considerably as more moisture would be available for early
sown crop.
4. Sowing the crop at optimum time.
Increases yields due to suitable environment at all the growth stages of the crop.
1. Optimum time of sowing for Kharif crop – June or July
2. Optimum time for Rabi crop - last week of October to first week of November
3. Summer crop - First fortnight of January.
Depth of Sowing:
Uneven depth of sowing results in uneven crop stand.
• Plants will be of different sizes and ages and finally harvesting is a problem as
there is uniformity in maturity.
• The thumb rule is to sow seeds to a depth approximately 3-4 times their
diameter.
• The optimum depth of sowing for most of field crops ranges between 3-5 cm
• Shallow depth of sowing of 3-5 cm is enough for small seeds like sesamum
finger millet and pearl millet.
• Very small seeds like tobacco are placed at a depth of ICM. Bold seeded crops
like castor, groundnut, cotton, and maize etc. 6-7 cm.
Seed rate:
1. Tobacco - 30g per hector
2. Mustard - 2-3 Kg/ha
3. Pulses - 10-12Kg/ha
4. Soybean - 80-100 Kg/ha
5. Groundnut - 100-120 Kg/ha
6. Forage grasses (rooted slips) - 2-3 tons/ha
7. Potato tubers - 5-7 tons/ha
8. Sugarcane (setts) - 7 tons/ha
CROP STAND ESTABLISHMENT – FACTORS AFFECTING
OPTIMUM STAND ESTABLISHMENT
It is influenced by various Factors:
1. Quality of seed – purity, germination percent viability, free from dormancy, free
from seed borne diseases, etc
2. Seed treatment:
a. Fungicidal treatment – mainly to avoid seed borne and also soil borne
diseases –Thiram, Captan, Mancozeb, Carbendazim, etc. used as per
recommendations.
b. Pesticide treatment – Malathian for control of scale insects in sugarcane,
Quinolphos for stem borer of rice.
c. Hot water treatment – 520C for 30 minutes to control red rot and smut
diseases in sugarcane.
d. Special treatments – dung treatment or acid treatment (100 ml conc.
H2SO4/kg seed) of cotton for removing fuzz (for sowing by using seed
drills, so that the seeds do not cling to each other in the seed tube)
e. Scarification – Rubbing against hard surface to soften the hard seed coat
(e.g: castor) or to remove the glumes covering the seed (eg: stylo) or
soaking in water for 12-24 hrs. (Eg: rice, stylo) splitting the seeds into
locules (e.g.: coriander) or compound bulbs into individual cloves – (e.g:
garlic).
f. Breaking dormancy – GA., cytokinins, Ethelene (500ppm for 12hrs)
g. Mixing seed with other materials to increase the bulk in case of small
seeded crops, mixing with sand or soil in case of crops like Sesamum,
Lucerne, mustard, ragi, etc.
h. Removal of broken kernels, ill filled seed – eg: Groundnut.
i. Rhizobium treatment – in case of legumes – specific Rhizobium cultures
are available depending upon the crop. These are helpful in fixing
atmospheric – N. use 125g. jaggery in 1 litre of water – boil – cool – add
Rhizobium culture (500g) and then thoroughly mix with seed (for 1 hour)
and shade dry before sowing (R.japonicum, R.melitotus. are some
examples)
3. Seed bed preparation
Coarse tilth for groundnut, redgram, etc
Fine tilth for ragi, mustard, etc
4. Time of sowing – important to meet the climatic requirements of each crop.
This is very important in rain fed crops. In case of late sowing (maturity may
coincide with drought), pest and disease incidence may be more and may affect
33
the crop stand (eg: stem borer in sorghum) kharif crops – June – July (best time
for sowing) rabi crops – October.
5. Depth of sowing – related to seed size, soil moisture availability, deep sowing
may result in poor crop stand (low germination). Too shallow, sowing may also
result in failure of germination.
6. Optimum soil moisture
7. Optimum soil temperature and aeration
8. Spacing – depends on crop and variety
9. Proper covering of the seed – in broadcast sowing bird damage is more if seeds
are not properly covered.
10. Formation of soil crust – in case of lateritic soils soil crust formation may hinder
germination. Shallow and frequent harrowings are practiced to break the crust.
(blind hoeing)
11. Compaction of seed bed – firm compaction is required between seed and soil
for good germination and also to minimize soil moisture loss. But hard
compaction may prevent seedling emergence. This may happen in heavy soils.
12. Bird damage in some crops – crops dig the soil and carry away sprouted seeds
of maize. (also in sunflower)

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy