Resource Book on Horticulture Nursery Management

The cultural methods which are recommended for adoption include resistant and
tolerant cultivars; summer deep ploughing, clean cultivation and removal of crop residues
and alternate host plants; appropriate sowing time; crop rotation and sequence cropping;
optimum plant densities; inter cropping to promote population build up of parasites and
predators; use of trap crops & barrier crops; avoidance of monoculture in large
contiguous area and avoiding excessive irrigation and nitrogenous fertilization.
The mechanical methods include hand-picking of egg masses, collection of early
instars of larva and grubs and their destruction to minimize the pest incidence. The
removal and destruction of affected shoot terminals, affected plants from nursery could
eliminate the hidden and hibernating pest stages.
The chemical controls mainly comprises of use of chemical insecticide and
pheromones. It is simplest to state that the use of insecticides is only done when they may
be necessary in the nursery, or just at planting out when they may be used as dips or soil
granules on occasion to protect young plantations such as from root or stem-feeding
insects such as termites, grasshoppers and weevils. The chemical treatment should only
be done in extremely problematic and severe cases.
Pheromone Trap for Monitoring the Pest Population
Use of pheromones and light traps help in monitoring the build-up of pests and
provide some reduction of phototropic adult stages through trapping. Pheromone are used
extensively all over world for monitoring insect pest populations, but they have also had
limited success in technique known as mating disruption or confusion. The timing of
positioning sex pheromone traps 5 per acre area and the quality and timing of
replacement of pheromone septa (every 15-21 days) at desired intervals is the key to
success of such traps. Although sometimes a large number of adults get trapped, these are
not to be seen as a control measure but are only indicative of pest activity (mating and
egg laying) in the area, a signal to initiate the use of biocontrol agents and biopesticides.
<strong>Resource</strong> <strong>Book</strong> on Horticulture Nursery Management : 90