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Potato Farming Tips: In the season of humidity, cold and continuous fog, the risk of blight on potato crop increases rapidly. Due to the outbreak of this disease, the leaves turn brown and start scorching and if timely prevention is not done, the entire crop can suffer huge losses. The disease spreads rapidly in continuous fog, cold nights and temperatures of 18–22 °C.
Lakhimpur: The right time for sowing potatoes depends on the area and temperature. In North India, its sowing is usually done between 15 October to 15 November, when the temperature is 18 to 25 degrees Celsius. One month has passed since the sowing of potatoes in most of the districts of UP. In such a situation, the danger of diseases is looming with increasing cold. Late blight, early blight, mosaic disease, black scurf and soft rot are the major diseases in potato crop, which cause scorching of leaves, stunted plant growth and rotting of tubers. In such a situation, farmers need to be cautious these days.
In Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh, farmers cultivate potatoes on a large scale during the winter season. Potato cultivation is considered to be a low-cost, high-profitable crop, but a little carelessness in the month of December can damage the entire crop. During this period, due to excessive fog and moisture, the incidence of blight disease in potatoes increases rapidly, due to which farmers get worried.
symptoms of blight
Agricultural scientist Dr Suhail Khan said that blight disease in potatoes is mainly caused by fungus, which spreads rapidly in high humidity, continuous fog, cold nights and temperature of 18–22 degrees Celsius. As a symptom of this disease, small brown or black spots first appear on the leaves, which gradually spread and scorch the entire leaf, the stem becomes weak and in severe cases the tubers also start rotting. For protection, use disease-free seed tubers, maintain good drainage in the field, give balanced fertilizers and spray Mancozeb or Chlorothalonil as soon as the initial symptoms of the disease appear, while as the outbreak increases, blight disease can be effectively controlled by using fungicides like Metalexil and Mancozeb.
do this work immediately
Dr. Suhail Khan said that potato is cultivated on a large scale in Kheri district and if blight disease is not treated in time, there can be a huge decline in production, causing financial loss to the farmers. He advised the farmers that it is very important to adopt crop rotation, in case of increase in infection, immediately spray fungicides and change the crop every year, which reduces the possibility of fungus growing in the soil.
