Temperate Vegetables (1+1)

PLANNING & METHODS

PLANTING TIME

Region	Season	Planting Time	Harvesting Time
North western hills
Very high hills	Summer	April-May	Sept-Oct
High hills	Summer	Mid-March-April	Sept-Oct
Mid hills	Spring	Jan-Feb	May-June
North central high hills	Summer	Mid Feb-March	August-Sept.
North eastern high hills	Spring	Mid Dec-Mid Jan	July-August
Shillong hills	Summer	March-April	July-August
	Autumn	March-April	Dec-Jan
	Winter	Jan-Feb	May-June
North western plains (Jammu, Punjab, Western U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan, Plains of M.P)	Early	Mid-Sept	Mid Nov-Dec
	Autumn	Mid-Oct	Feb-March
	Spring	Jan	April
North Central Plains	Winter	Mid-Oct	Feb-March
North Eastern plains
Bihar	Winter	Oct end to 2nd week of Nov.	Jan-Feb
W.B.	Winter	Early Nov	Jan-Feb
Orissa	Winter	Early Nov	Jan-Feb
Plateu regions	Kharif	June-July	Sept-Oct
	Rabi	Oct-Nov	Feb-March

SEED RATE

• 25-35 q/ha

• Potato is traditionally propagated through tubers.
• The eyes on the tuber surface contain axillary buds and the tubers have a dormancy of nearly 8-10 weeks.
• The axillary buds start germinating when the dormancy is over and produces sprouts.
• Such sprouted tubers put up fast and vigorous growth when planted in the soil.
• Pre-sprouting of seed stocks, therefore, helps in increasing the number of main stems and consequently the yield by ensuring quick, uniform and full germination.

METHODS OF SOWING AND SPACING

Ridge and Furrow Method

• Ridge and furrow method is the most popular method carried out manually or mechanically
• In this method, the ridges are prepared.
• The lengths of the ridges depend on slope of the plot.
• Too long ridges and furrows are not supplied with irrigation water conveniently.
• The potato tubers are planted on ridges and irrigation water is let into the furrows.
• In hills, after placement of fertilizer in shallow furrows drawn with hand tools, tubers are placed and covered with soil to make ridges. Care should be taken that seed tubers should not come in direct contact of fertilizers.
• In mechanical method, furrows are made with the help of tractor drawn 2-4 row marker co fertilizer drills so as to apply fertilizer in one sequence. This is followed by planting of tubers with the help of 2-row planter cum ridger.

Flat Bed Method

• In these methods, the whole plot is divided into beds of convenient length and width.
• The shallow furrows are opened and potato tubers are planted at recommended distance.
• The tubers are covered with the original soil of furrows.
• When the germination is completed and plants become 10 to 12 cm height, earthling should be done.
• Suitable plant spacing in relating to potato seed grades are given in the below:

Diameter of tuber from longer axis	Planting distance (row x plant)
2.5-3.5cm	50 x 20 or 60 x 15 cm
3.5-5.0 cm	60 x 25 cm
5.0-6.0 cm	60 x 40 cm

Seed Size and Spacing

• Proper combination of seed size and spacing is essential to get the required number of stems per unit area.
• It can be obtained by planting 40-50 g tuber with 40-50mm diameter at a spacing of 45-60cm between rows and 20-25cm between the tubers with in rows.
• Tubers are sold on weight basis; therefore, planting of large tubers is more expensive.
• These tubers are cut into pieces, each containing at least 1-2 eyes.
• Tuber cutting is not recommended specially when producing a seed crop because of danger of transmitting viruses and bacteria.
• Hence, special care is taken to avoid tuber decay when such cut tubers are used for plantation.

DORMANCY

• Hill tubers can not be used for autumn crop immediately because of dormancy period which remains for 2-3 months in tubers.
• Similarly, potato minitubers can not be planted immediately after harvest and during unknown period after that,
• Duration of dormancy in potato minitubers depends on cultivar, ripening time, growth condition, maintenance condition in store and the tuber size.
• Minitubers’ dormancy period is longer than normal seed tubers.
• In these conditions, it is essential to break down the dormancy period.
• Thiourea solution (Sodium Potassium thiocynate) @ 1-2% which is used as a treatment to cut tubers for 1-^1/2 hours and about 1 kg of thiourea is sufficient for 10 quintals of seed tuber or
  
• Tubers are kept in 5ppm solution of GA₃ for 10 seconds. or
• Treat the tuber with acquous solution of thiourea for one hour followed by dipping in 2 ppm solution of GA for 10 seconds. Or
• Ethylene chlorohydrine used as a gas treatment. Six parts of water and 4 parts of chemical is mixed and the tubers are kept in this solution for 5 days in an air tight chamber and temperature should be kept at 70-80oF.
• The tubers from cold storage are warmed up at 60^oF for 10-14 days before sowing which sprout quickly and give good germination stand.

Treatment of cut seed tubers

• Cut tubers should be treated with 0.2% Dithane Z-78 which help in improving tuber size and crop yield
• The cut pieces should be allowed to heel at 18-21^oC and 85-90% relative humidity for 2-3 days which prevents rotting of cut tubers as seed (Suberization/healing).
• Do not treat the tuber with any of the chemical if sprouts are coming out.
• Treat with aglal (0.5%) for 5-10 minutes to control scab disease.