tomato cultivation

Insects are responsible for two major kinds of damage to growing crops. First is direct injury done to the plant by the feeding insect, which eats leaves or burrows in stems, fruit, or roots. There are hundreds of pest species of this type, both in larvae and adults, among orthopterans, homopterans,heteropterans, coleopterans, lepidopterans, and dipterans. The second type is indirect damage in which the insect itself does little or no harm but transmits a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection into a crop .Worldwide annual crop loss approximately 53% billion US dollar .  Yield loss up to 35% and   53% fruit Loss reported in KPk

CROP PROTECTION……

 With stage

ü    At sowing

ü    After sowing

ü  At flowering & fruiting

English name	Scientific Name
Ants	Monomorium indicum

ü  The body of an ant is clearly divided into three sections: the head, the thorax, and the gaster.

ü   Ants are social insects living in colonies comprised of one or a few queens  and  workers.

ü   Usually ants tend to come in dark.

v  Seed dressing

v  Locate holes and Dust   

v  Banding Permethrine  (0.2 %) .

v  Spray Chlorpyrifos   @ 8 ml per liter of  water.

English name	Scientific Name
Aphid	Myzus persicae Macrosiphum spp.

• In early spring, winged aphids migrate into tomato fields from wild hosts and begin to establish colonies on the plants.

Damage
The potato aphid is pear-shaped and may be solid pink, green and pink mottled, or light green with a dark stripe. It has a long slender pair of tail-like appendages (cornicles).

•       Direct damage occurs when they attack the crop in large numbers, especially the youngest leaves and stems.

•       Aphids remove sap from the plant with their piercing-sucking mouthparts.

•       Severe infestations cause leaves to curl and results stunting.

APHIDS MANAGEMENT

•       Remove old crop debris before sowing new crop.

•       Use balanced fertilizer (avoid excessive use of Nitrogen).

•       Spray neem extract with soap.

English name	Scientific Name
CUTWORM	Agrotis flammatara Agrotis ipsilon
WHITE FLY	Bemisia Tabaci
LEAF MINER	Liriomyza sp.(Burgess) Chromotomyia horticola

Damage

v  Larvae at night cut off young plants near the ground.

v   One larva often damages numerous plants in a row during a single night.

v   Small populations can cause considerable injury resulting in to re-plant.

CUTWORM MANAGEMENT

Ø  Clean cultivation 

Ø  INTERPLANT

•              Tomato with onion

•              Tomato with garlic

•              Tomato with peppermint

•              Tomato with coriander

Ø  Use Protective Collars.

Ø  Make small heaps of leaf litter in field at different localities

Ø  Apply wood ash it discourages cutworms from burrowing into the soil around the seedlings.

CUTWORM CONTROL

•       10kg wood bran + 1 kg Molasses +100 g permethrin powder +  4 lit. water.

•       Mix thoroughly and spread in the field.

•       Flood lymda with irrigation water

WHITEFLY MANAGEMENT

•       Use resistant cultivars

•       Uproot and burry the diseased leaf curl plants.

•       Remove alternate weed hosts.

Leaf miner : Chromotomyia horticola

•       Make  mines (slender, white, winding)

•       Heavily mined leaflets have large whitish blotches.

•       Leaves drop prematurely;

•       Heavily infested plants may lose most of their leaves.

•       Photosynthetic activities are affected

•        At early fruiting period defoliation can reduce yield and fruit size and expose fruit to sunburn.

MANAGEMANT

•       Tomatoes, which have a long fruiting period, are more vulnerable than other tomato crops.

•       Clean cultivation.

•       Crop rotation.

•       Encourage parasitic wasps

English name	Scientific Name
TOMATO FRUIT WORM	Helicoverpa armigera

•        

•       Feed on  leaves and fruit.

•       Prefer green fruit and  enter it usually at the stem end,

v  Extensive direct damage result in rotting and decay.

During its development, one larva may injure several fruits

Management

•       Avoid planting tomato along with maize to prevent heavy pest infestations

•       Monitor eggs and small larvae below the highest open flower.

•       Regular collection & burying  damaged fruits at each harvest.

ACTIVITY	STAGE OF CROP	MANAGEMENT OPTION
Seed treatment	Sowing time	Thiamethoxm & Imidacloprid  @ 3, 5 grams per kg seed respectively.
Management of sucking pests	Nursery	Imidacloprid @ 1 ml in 3-4 liters of water or fipronil @ 2 ml per liter.
Installation of pheromone traps	At the time of transplanting	Two traps per location
Management of thrips in main crop	Transplanting to one month before harvest	Overhead irrigation with sprinklers wherever possible Imidacloprid @ 1 ml in 3-4 liters of water or fipronil @ 2 ml per liter
Management of mites	In the nursery and main crop	Overhead irrigation with sprinklers wherever possible. Spray one of these chemicals once in the nursery and second time in the main crop – dicofol @ 5 ml per liter
Management of fruit borers at initial stage	Flowering stage & Fruiting stage	Application of neem fruit powder extract @ 25 kg ha-1

SUCKING PEST COMPLEX
PEST	CHEMICAL NAME	COMMERCIAL NAME	DOSE ha-1
			FORMULATION
Aphids Whitefly	Imidacloprid 200 SL	Confidor 200 SL	650 ml
	Thiamethoxam 25 WG	Actara 25 WG	60g
	Acetamiprid 20 SP	Mospilan 20 SP Rani  20 SL	312.5 g
			312.5 ml
LEAFMINER
Tomato Leafminer	Chlorantraniliprole 20 SC	Coragen 20 SC	100 ml /HLW
TOMATO FRUIT BORERS
Helicoverpa armigera	Emamectin benzoate 1.9EC	Proclaim 1.9EC	500ml
	Spinosad 240 SC	Tracer 240 SC Spintor 480 SC	100 ml 50 ml
	Flubendiamide 480 SC	Belt 480 SC	50 ml
	Lufenuron 50 Ec	Match 50 EC	250 ml
	Chlorantraniliprole 20 SC	Coragen 20 SC	150 ml
	Indoxacarb 150 SC	Steward 150 SC	438 ml