Cultural practices
Soil sterilization is required to reduce the risk of fungi and bacteria. The methods can be either of these:
•
35 mL of hydrogen peroxide is mixed with silver into a litre of water and the
solution is applied uniformly over the wet soil. Approximately 1 m² of land
would need 1 litre of this solution. The soil should not be covered with any
plastic sheet and the solution being highly reactive should not be mixed with
other chemicals. After 4 to 6 hours of this treatment, planting can be done.
•
5 to 10 litres of formalin is diluted in 10 times more water and sprayed over
the soil. The soil should be covered with a plastic sheet for a week. After
removing the sheet, the soil should be flushed with 100 litres of water to
remove any trace of the chemical. Planting should be done 2 weeks after the
flushing of chemicals. The common pests are aphids, greenhouse fly, leaf minor,
red mites, cyclamine mites, thrips, caterpillar, root rot nematode etc. These
pests can be prevented by using yellow sticky traps or blue sticky traps or
applying insecticides. Common diseases are root rot, crown rot, Fusarium,
alternia leaf spot, powdery mildew, bacterial blight, botrytis etc. Biological
way of controlling these diseases is to use Trichoderma viridae and Trichoderma
harzanium (fungicides).
Weeding,
disbudding and removal of old leaves are also required at the appropriate
times.