Bacterial wilt appears in many vegetable crops. When it strikes, a few leaves near the top of the plant droop first, and within a day or two the whole plant wilts and dies. Here is what to do if the disease appears.

Crops affected: cucurbits, such as cucumber, bottle gourd and pumpkin.

Integrated control: pull out and destroy or burn affected plants. Collect seed from disease-free plants. Treat seed with 2.5 grams of Provax or Vitavax-200 per kg of seed. In some cases, applying a carbendazim fungicide such as Agben at 4 grams per litre of water to the base of the plant helps.

Crops affected: tomato, brinjal, potato, green chilli and others.

Integrated control: pull up and destroy diseased plants as soon as they are seen. Rotate crops, for example with maize, mustard or wheat. Grow disease-tolerant varieties. Irrigate in moderation, and stop irrigating once the disease has taken hold. Treat seed and seedlings; streptocycline, streptomycin or plantomycin at 1 gram in 10 litres of water can be sprayed on the plants.

Apply 5 tonnes per hectare of half-rotted poultry manure to the field at least 21 days before planting, mix it in and let it decompose well with the soil. Apply mustard oil cake at 500 kg per hectare at the final ploughing. Applying the nematicide Genefuran 5G (carbofuran) at 25 kg per hectare at transplanting or at the final ploughing effectively controls tomato wilt and root-knot nematode.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.