Planting unhealthy seed leads to weak and diseased plants resulting into low yield. Selecting good seed and treating it with an organic product before sowing, enhances growth and yield of green gram.
To obtain good quality seed, begin by harvesting seed from healthy plants, and spread them on a tarpaulin. Sieve to remove small stones and unhealthy seed, then remain with bold healthy seed.
Seed treatment
You can treat seed with a natural product to control seed borne/ soil borne diseases. These can be bought from local agro dealer shops. Trichodema is the commonly used fungicide, this enables growth of good microbes around the roots. Seed can also be coated with organic fertilizer to boost growth, rhizobium to fix nitrogen from the air into the soil and phosphate to prevent bacteria to increase available phosphorous in the soil before sowing.
Before starting to treat the seed, dissolve half a handful of jaggery or sugar in a glass of water. Put 1 kg of green gram in a container and on to it sprinkle half tea spoon full of trichodema and mix the seeds. Add 2 and a half tea spoons of rhizobia followed by the same quantity of phosphate solublising bacteria. Sprinkle the sugary water on the seed and mix the seed, then dry under shade for 1 hour before sowing.
Making organic product locally
Mix 2 handfuls of cow dung with half litre cow urine, 3 table spoons lime, 1 glass cow milk or yoghurt and 10 litres of water in a plastic drum.
Keep the solution over night then stir using a wooden stick the following day. This solution can be stored in an air tight container for 1 month.
Mix one cup of solution with 1 kg of seed, mix and after dry in a shade before sowing.
