India: National Research Centre for Citrus issues guidelines for orange, lemon farmers
NRCC director MS Ladaniya, who also is the TMC leader, told TOI that the institute regularly issues guidelines for farmers throughout the year. However, this year due to adverse weather conditions and also because of increase in humidity, as a result of continuous rains, orange growers need to take certain precautions and control measures. These guidelines are different for orange and lemon and are also based on the orchard's age.
Farmers using drip irrigation should use lateral spreads for both Ambia and Mrig bahar. If they don't have drip irrigation system then they should use the double ring irrigation method. Irrigation should be controlled and 9 litres of water per day per tree is enough for one-year-old orange and sweet orange trees. For four-year-old trees the water requirement goes to 40 litres per day per tree, while for ten-year-old or even older trees 105 litres of water is needed.
The water requirement for lemon is comparatively less. For one-year-old lemon tree 6 litres of water is enough while for 4-year-old tree about 19 litres of water is needed. For 8-year-old trees the requirement goes to 57 litres while for 10-year-old and above 92 litres of water is required per day per tree.
Protection measures include applying bordeaux paste on the tree trunk and smoking the orchard by burning wet grass, cow dung and neem leaves. Pheromone traps can be used to trap fruit flies when the fruits begin to ripen and the plucking season begins. Preventive measures also should be initiated to control citrus mite. Weeding and harrowing are also necessary during this time.
Source: indiatimes.com
