Frequently Asked Questions :: Stress Management

Stress management

What does it mean by crop moisture stress?

During different physiological stages of crop growth, when the crop is unable to meet the required amount of water, the wilting of crops occur and it is termed as drought or stress.

What are the symptoms for drought?

When the tissue water content is reduced below the critical level, the crop growth will begin to reduce and under extreme situations wilting occurs

In which season normally stress occur?

Normally the stress will occur in summer season, because of high atmospheric/ soil temperature which cause more evaporation as well as transpiration

What are the drought tolerant crops?

The crops such as groundnut, pearlmillet, sorghum, pulses and cotton which normally require lesser amount of water and would be able to tolerate the soil moisture deficit, for a short interval, when the crop is unable to meet the water requirement

How does the stress effect can be distinguished from the pest/disease attack?

In general the pest/disease will attack only a portion or an organ or plant, whereas the drought will affect the entire crop which finally result in death of plant

How can the stress be alleviated in rice ?
In rice crop, the foliar spray of potassium chloride or potassium
di-hydrogen phosphate (0.5 per cent) or cycocel (100 ppm) or kaolin
(3.0 per cent ) would save the crop from moisture stress

What are the stress alleviating methods followed in oilseeds crops?

Foliar spray of either potassium chloride (0.5 per cent) or potassium
di-hydrogen phosphate (0.5 per cent) (i.e) 5 g /litre of water or 2.5 kg in 500 litres of water/ha through hand operated sprayer of 250 litres

What are the stress alleviating methods followed in oilseeds crops ?

Foliar spray of either potassium chloride (0.5 per cent) or Kaolin at
3 per cent (30 g of kaolin /lit of water) would protect the crop from wilting due to moisture stress for a maximum duration of one week

What type of sprayer is advantageous to spray water mitigating chemicals?

Power sprayer is advantageous in terms of speed, coverage as well as volume of spray solvent will also be nearly half when compared to manual operated sprayer.

What are the important critical stages of water requirement of crops?

Crop	Sensitive stages
Rice Sorghum Maize Cumbu Ragi Groundnut Sunflower Sesamum Soybean Pulses Cotton Sugarcane	Panicle initiation and milky Booting and flowering Silking Flowering Flowering Peg penetration/pod development Flowering Flowering Flowering to maturity Flowering Boll development Upto 120 days

What are the seed hardening chemicals used for pre-sowing seed hardening techniques to combat drought ?

Crop	Sensitive stages
Rice Sorghum Maize Cumbu Ragi Groundnut Sunflower Redgram Greengram Bengal gram Cotton	Potassium chloride (1 per cent) Potassium di-hydrogen phosphate ( 2 per cent) Cycocel (250 ppm) Sodium chloride (0.5 per cent ) Sodium chloride (0.5 per cent ) Calcium chloride (0.5 per cent ) Magnesium sulphate (0.5 per cent ) Zinc sulphate (100 ppm) Manganese sulphate (100 ppm) Potassium di-hydrogen phosphate (1 per cent) Potassium chloride ( 2 per cent)

What is meant by nutrient stress ?

Each crop requires 16 elements for normal growth. Among the 16, except C, H, O and Cl all other elements are mostly taken up by the crop from the soil in the form of minerals. When the soil does not contain sufficient amount of nutrients, and when the plants are unable to meet the required elements, the crop undergoes some deficit and causes some stress in crop and it is called nutrient stress

Whether water spray will alleviate the moisture stress?

One or two water spray will be useful to combat the plant moisture stress, but the bound water content will not be improved