Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Land preparation

• The soil should be ploughed, clods are broken and weeds are removed and brought to fine tilth.

Seed rate
20-25 kg/ha for summer crop and 12-15 kg/ha for winter season crop. Seeds are inoculated with Rhizobium species. It helps in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen.

Spacing
The seeds are dibbled in rows 45-60 cm and plant to plant distance of 10-15cm.

Nutrition
Although cowpea is a legume crop, it responds well to the application of fertilizers. About 25 tonnes of FYM is applied at the time of final preparation of land. Application of 25 kg N, 75 kg P2O5 and 60kg K2O/ha is recommended. Half of the N along with entire dose of P and K should be applied at the time of sowing Remaining half of N should be applied at the time of earthing up after 3rd week of sowing. Spraying micronutrients shall improve the quality besides increasing yield.

Irrigation
Cowpea is a hardy crop comes up well under rainfed condition. Flowering and pod development periods are the critical stages. Depending on the atmospheric conditions 2 or 3 protective irrigations may have to be given. For higher yields the crop should be irrigated regularly at 5-7 days interval. Hardening during pre flowering for avoiding excess vegetative growth and will induce early flowering

Weed control
Effective control of weeds in the first 20-25 days of the crop season is essential. Atleast 2 weedings or hoeing required to check the weeds. Pre sowing application of Fluchloralin @ 2l/ha is recommended.

Growth substances
Spraying of maleic hydrazide at 50-200 ppm just before flowering increases the pod yield. Spraying of NAA 15 ppm induces fruit set.

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