SEED

Seed Selection

For seed purposes, harvesting is done 30 days after anthesis – when the pods are fully mature, dry and start cracking. About 300 plants (left for seeds) are sufficient to sow one hectare of crop.

Seed Treatment

For the summer crop, the seeds should be soaked in water for 12 hours before sowing. The seeds can be treated with sweet flag rhizome extract or cow urine solution (diluted with water in 1 : 5 ratio) for 30 minutes before sowing. This gives resistance against a number of bacterial and fungal diseases. Seeds can also be treated with cow dung solution (viz, beejamrut/jeevamrut/amrut pani/panchagavya) for 4–6 hours after soaking in water for eight hours. The seeds can then be dried in shade and sown.

Seed rate

A seed rate of about 18–22 kg/ha for the spring/summer crop and 10–12 kg/ha for the rainy season crop will be optimum. A higher seed rate is used for the spring crop since it has to augment the loss in germination due to low temperatures. A high seed rate and closer spacing during summer reduces field temperatures and helps in normal fruiting under frequent and light irrigation.

Updated on : Dec 2014