Messages for the Month of January, 2007.

S.No	Department	Crop	Message
1	Agronomy	Brown Sarsoon	Create surface Drainage channels in the fields where there is likelihood of water stagnation during the spring months.
			Partial thinning be done during this period if it has not been accomplished so far and provided field conditions permit. This operation is executed only in the well established crop (sown up to mid October). It must be emphasized here that final trainings is to be done in the first week of March, 2006.
2	Pomology	Pome, Stone, Nut fruits and Grapes	Adopt Modified Leader system for Pome, Stone and Nut fruits.
			Remove diseased, dried or narrow crotch angle branches along with water sprouts and prefer thinning out overlapping branches. Never remove more than ¼ of current, season’s growth.
			Go for staking of budded or grafted nursery plants to avoid snow damage.
			In case of heavy snow fall go for shaking of limbs.
3	Olericulture	Potato	An early arrangement of quality seed of recommended varieties may be arranged from authentic sources.
		Vegetable Crops(Kharief)	Selection of site for hot bed preparation at raised portions of the garden may be done
			Paddy straw 1-1.5 khoroos for covering each layer of FYM and sides of the hot bed. Cover the top with polythene sheet (200-250 gms) About 10 cm thick straw layer followed by 10-12.5 cm thick layer of fresh manure FYM/Mule dung. Repeat above stated process Put 10 cm layers of grass, press and sprinkle water. Cover with 10 cm garden soil. Mix 40 gms each of DAP/MOP with working soil.

		Cole crops	Raising of seedlings of Cole crops
		Cauliflower, Cabbage and Knol-Khol	Sow seeds and cover with thin layer of ash/fine soil.
4	Floriculture	Lawns	Keep the lawns well swept. Avoid trees passing through the lawn in well forestry weather.
		Annuals and Biennials	Autumn sown annuals and Biennials in the nursery beds should be protected with dry straw during severe frosts. Inspect bulbs, corns etc. in storage and Discard diseased and rotten ones if any.
		House plants	Cover house plants with double layer of newspapers, which in turn are covered with large sheets of brown paper. Avoid splashing of water over the plants.
5	Plant pathology	All temperate fruits	Provide proper drainage in orchards to drain off the surface water. Prune the canker bearing twigs, dried and dead branches. Scrap the dead bark from trunk and burn them. Apply white lead paint or Bordaux/Chaubattia paste on the cuts/scraped surfaces.
		Turnip, Radish,Carrot,Cabbage and Knol-Khol	Protect the harvested crops/roots fro frost by storing the produce in trenches covered with polythene sheet and gunny bags.
		Mustard and Pea	Do not allow the stagnation of water in the fields.
6	Entomology	Fruits	Destruction of egg masses of hairy caterpillar. Pruning and disposal of infested branches. Avoid planting of insect infested nursery plant material for establishment of new orchards or replacement of old trees.
		Oilseed	During the period the activity of insect pests is least on accounts of low temperature and there is no need of spraying. However, if severity of the pests is observed, use Endosulfan (0.05%) or Phosphorus (0.05%).
		Vegetables	There being least activity of the insect pests. Uprooting and burning of left over tomatoes and brinjal plants shall reduce the population of borers in coming season.
		Field crops	Uprooting and burning of left over maize stubbles shall reduce the attack of stem borer in coming kharief.