Land requirement
Land should be free of volunteer plants. The previous crop should not be the same variety or other varieties of the same crop. It can be the same variety if it is certified as per the procedures of certification agency
Isolation
For certified / quality seed production leave a distance of 30 m all around the field from the same and other varieties / hybrids of the crop.
Season
February - July and August-September |
Land Selection
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| Pre-sowing seed management |
Cotton Seed Treatment |
- Seed fortification with 1 % KCl for 6 hrs and drying back original moisture content + polymer @ 3 ml / kg + imidachloprid @ 2 ml / kg +carbendazium 2 g / kg + P.fluorescens @ 10 g / + Azophos @ 120 g / kg of seed
- Soak the seeds in 3 % cowpea sprout extract for 10 h in seed to solution ratio of 1:1. (or)
- Harden the seed with 2 % KCl for 10 h in the seed to solution ratio 1:1.
- For mine spoils, harden with 2 % KCl for 10 h (seed to solution ratio 1:1 and coat with pink polykote 3 g / kg + carbendazim 2 g/ kg + imidachloprid1 ml / kg + DAP 30 g + micro nutrient mixture 20 g / kg + Azospirillium 80 g / kg of seed
Preparation of pulse sprout extract
- Cowpea seeds were soaked overnight and incubated in a wet cloth for 12 h to enable sprouting. Later, 100 g of sprouts were ground in a mixer grinder by using ice cubes of 100 ml of water to prepare extracts of 100 per cent concentration. The ground material was squeezed through cloth bag to extract the sprout extract
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Acid delinting of fuzzy seeds
- Treat the fuzzy seeds with commercial sulphuric acid @ 100 ml/kg of seed for a duration of 2-5 minutes depending upon the variety (2 minutes for MCU.5 while it is 5 minutes for MCU.12.
- After acid treatment, wash the seed thoroughly for 3 to 4 times with fresh water and with 0.5% lime solution for removal of acid
Foliar application
- Apply 1% Diammonium phosphate as three sprays on 70th, 80th and 90th day after sowing (or)
- Spray 0.5 % Nutrigold or 3 % cowpea sprout extract at vegetative and flowering stage.
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Foliar Spry
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Harvesting
- Seed attains physiological maturity 45 – 55 days after fertilization
- Select fully bursted kapas for picking. The kapas are picked periodically in six pickings at weekly intervals
- Consider first five pickings in winter crop and first four pickings in the summer crop alone for seed purpose because the seed from the subsequent pickings are inferior in quality
- Do not retaining the kapas unpicked in the field for more than a week as it reduces seed quality
Seed Treatment
- Slurry treat the seeds with carbendazim @ 2g kg-1 of seed
- Slurry treat seeds with halogen mixture (CaOCl2 + CaCO3 + arappu (Albizzia amara) leaf powder mixed in the ratio of 5:4:1) @ 3g / kg of seed as eco – friendly treatment
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Harvesting maturity |
Storage
- Store the seeds in gunny or cloth bags for short term storage (8-9 months) with seed moisture content of 8 - 10%
- Store the seeds in polylined gunny bag for medium term storage (12- 15 months) with seed moisture content of 7 – 8 %.
- Store the seeds in 700 gauge polythene bag for long term storage (more than15 months) with seed moisture content of less than 6%.
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Seed Storage
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Source
The Professor and Head,
Department of Seed Science & Technology,
TNAU, Coimbatore-641003.
Phone:0422-6611363
Email: seed@tnau.ac.in
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