Litchi crop stage-wise IPM

Pre-planting

Common cultural practices:

• Timely planting should be done.
• Orchard sanitation
• Destroy the alternate host plants
• Apply manures and fertilizers as per soil test recommendations
• Sow the ecological engineering plants
• · Sow the intercrops as per the season

Nutrients

• Nutrient should be applied on the basis of soil test report and recommendation for the particular agro-climatic zone.
• Prepare land by ploughing and harrowing.
• The pits are dug in summer about a fortnight before planting and left undisturbed.
• Pits of about 1m x 1m x 1m at a distance of 8 to 10 meter in square system of planting.
• Pits are filled with top soil mixed with manures and fertilizers @ 20-25 kg FYM, 2 kg bonemeal and 300 g muriate of potash per pit.

Weeds

• Plough the orchard before first planting to destroy the existing weed in the orchard.
• Remove existing weeds in and around the pits at the time of planting.

Resting stages of soil borne pathogens (root rot), pests

Cultural control:

• Deep summer ploughing of orchard s to control soil borne pathogens and subsequently reduces their initial population build up.

Planting

Common cultural practices:

• Use resistant/tolerant planting material/seedlings
• Follow proper plant spacing
• Use healthy, certified and weed seed free planting material.

Common mechanical practices:

• Remove new sprouts emerging from root stock at frequent intervals.
• Shift the grafts frequently from one place to another to prevent them from striking roots into the ground.

Nutrients

• Planting is done in pits already filled with top soil and farm yard manure during the months of August-September.
• A basket of soil taken from old litchi orchard is added to each pit to ensure mycorrhizal association with litchi roots.
• Pits are then watered so that the soil settles down

Weeds

• Use fibrous mulch of wheat or barley straw and pea nut shells to reduce the weed problems and conserve the soil moisture.
• Adopt the intercropping of recommended crops between the rows of litchi depending upon the stage of orchard

Pests, soil-borne pathogens

Cultural Control:

• Well decomposed farm yard manure coupled with Trichoderma viride/harzianum should be used.
• Nursery beds should be raised.
• Nursery beds should be fumigated with 4% formalin

Termites

Cultural control

• Copious irrigation and drenching nurseries or basin of transplanted seedlings.
• Apply well rotten FYM only to discourage the termite infestation.
• Avoid late planting.
• Destroy the residue which is the source of infestation.
• Digging the termitaria and destruction of the queen is mostimportant in termite management.
• Light irrigation at weekly intervals may be done.
• Termite kills small and young litchi plants.

Biological control

• Spray Neem oil 5% (50 ml/l) once on the base and upto 2 m height of the trunk for effective control

* Apply Trichoderma viride/harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescens for seed, nursery treatment and soil application (if commercial products are used, check for label claim. However, biopesticides produced by farmers for own consumption in their fields, registration is not required).

Vegetative (1-5 year onward)

Common cultural practices:

• Collect and destroy crop debris
• Provide irrigation at the critical stages of the crop
• Avoid water logging
• Avoid water stress during flowering stage
• Follow judicious use of fertilizers
• Enhance parasitic activity by avoiding chemical pesticide spray, when 1-2 larval parasitoids are observed in the crops orchard.

Common mechanical practices:

• Collect and destroy disease infected and insect infested plant parts.
• Collect and destroy eggs and early stage larvae
• Handpick the older larvae during early stages of plants
• Hand pick the gregarious caterpillars and cocoons which are found on stem/branches and destroy them in kerosene mixed water.
• Use yellow sticky trap for monitoring whitefly@4-5 traps/acre
• Use light trap @ 1/acre and operate between 6 pm and 10 pm
• Set up bonfire during evening hours at 7-8 pm.

Common biological practices:

• Conserve natural enemies through ecological engineering
• Augmentative release of natural enemies

Weeds

• Deep hoeing is recommended during the first year to check weed growth. Weeding should be done on regular basis especially around the plants.
• Earthing up is done before or after the onset of monsoon to avoid water-logging and also to help the plants to stand erect.
• To suppress the weeds between rows, leguminous crops and vegetables can be grown as intercrops in the first 6 to 7 years.
• Use straw or plastic mulch to avoid weed growth and to maintain soil moisture for longer period.

Nutrients

• Apply fertilizers according to the age of plant as mentioned below;
• The fertilizers should be applied in 20-30 cm deep and 30cms wide trench along the drip line of the tree.

Litchi mite

Cultural control

• Deep ploughing of the field and exposing the soil to sun (MayJune and Sept-October) helps to minimize the incidence.
• Layers should be prepared only from non-infested plants.
• The leaves should be checked regularly for symptoms over summer and autumn.
• All trees in an orchard are not to be flushed or infested at the same time. Therefore, branches infested with the mite should be cut off and burnt.
• After harvesting in June, infested branches must be removed.
• Infested leaves should be gathered and burnt or buried deeply into the ground.
• In December-January, just before flush/flower buds, the affected shoots must be removed

Chemical control:

• Dicofol 18.5% EC@ 2700-4050 ml in 1000-5000 l of water/ha and observe waiting period of 15-20 days

Biological control:

• Follow common biological practices.

Leaf roller

Cultural control:

• The damage caused by leaf rollers is tolerated as long as it is restricted to the foliage and unlikely to affect flower initiation.
• The rolled leaves that contain larvae may be removed manually during light infestations

Bark Eating caterpillar

Cultural control:

• The caterpillars can be killed by inserting an iron spoke into the tunnels made on the stem.
• This insect has also been successfully controlled by injecting kerosene oil into the tunnel by means of a syringe and then sealing the opening of the tunnel with mud.
• Remove the webs from tree trunks

Shoot borer

Cultural control:

• The attacked shoots may be clipped off and destroyed.

Nut borer

• Follow common mechanical practices.

Mealy bug

• Follow common cultural, mechanical and biological practices

Cultural control:

• Deep ploughing of orchard in the month of June kill the eggs.
• Ploughing of orchard in November.
• Raking of soil around tree trunk to expose the eggs to natural enemies and sun, removal of weeds
• Fastening of alkathene sheet (400 gauge)/grease band of 25 cm wide afterwards mud plastering of trunk at 30 cm above the ground in the middle of December.
• In July –August destruction of infested fallen leaves with scales

Biological control:

• Raking of soil around tree trunk to expose the eggs to natural enemies and sun, removal of weeds and releasing 10-15 grubs
• · Releasing 10-15 grubs of cocinellid predator, C. montrozieri per tree.

Whitefly

Cultural control:

• Field sanitation and rogueing of alternate hosts.
• A regularly maintained program of hedging and topping can help avoid whitefly problems
• For others see common practices.

Biological control:

• See common biological practices.

Leaf cutting weevil

• The grubs of these weevils feed on organic matter in the soil below the canopy, hence, ploughing and exposing these grubs reduces the problem.
• Hand picking of the adult weevils reduces their problem to some extent.

Leaf miner

• Ploughing of the orchard and timely application of nutrients and water so that new leaves emerge before September.
• After emergence of flush spray 5% NSKE at interval of 7 days.

Litchi semilooper

• Follow common cultural and biological practices.
• Spray 5% NSKE

Powdery mildew

Cultural control:

• Follow proper spacing during planting.
• Spraying at full bloom needs to be avoided.

Mechanical control:

• Prune diseased leaves and malformed panicles harbouring the pathogen to reduce primary inoculum load.

Anthracnose

• Follow common cultural, mechanical and biological practices

Cultural control:

• Diseased leaves, twigs, gall midge infected leaves and fruits, should be collected and burnt.
• Avoidance of overcrowding of trees and branches in orchard.
• Pruning of affected plants and burning has been suggested to minimize the chances of fresh infections.
• The rates of latent infection of the fruits could be evidently controlled by integrated management of the disease in the growing season, and the post-harvest decay and browning of the fruits are effectively reduced.
• The effect of storage can be improved when the measure is applied to control the latent infection of anthracnose on litchi fruit before harvest.

Dieback

Cultural Control:

• Scion wood selected for propagation should be free from infection
• Every care should be taken to prevent introduction of disease in newly planted orchards.

Mechanical control:

• Any infected portion should immediately be pruned, followed by spraying/ pasting of copper oxy-chloride or pasting with cow dung at the cut ends.
• Pruning should be done in such a way that some healthy portion is also removed, to ensure complete eradication of pathogen (3 “below the infection site).

Leaf rust

• Follow common cultural, mechanical and biological practices.
• If vigour of plant is maintained by balanced nutrients, the disease is less.

Armillaria rot

• As water stress predisposes litchi plants to Armillaria rot, excess of water should be avoided in the plantations.
• Infected part should be removed and soil drenching with a good fungicide should be given.

Flowering and Fruiting/maturity stage

Nutrients

• Apply recommended micronutrients, if symptoms are observed. Litchi fruits are deformed under boron deficiency.
• To avoid boron deficiency, apply H2BO3 (0.1%) as foliar spray.

Weeds

• Remove weeds around the plants.
• Use straw or plastic Mulch to avoid weed growth and to maintain soil moisture for longer period.

Fruit/shoot borer

Cultural control:

• Attacked shoots should be clipped off and destroyed.
• Clean hole and pour kerosene/petrol/crude oil or formalin into the stem borer hole and subsequently close entrance of the tunnel by plugging with cotton wool and paste the mud.

Biological control:

• To minimize the population of fruit borer, use Trichogramma @ 20,000 eggs/acre

Anthracnose fruit rot

• Covering the fruits on tree, 15 days prior to harvest with news or brown paper bags.

Other insect pests and diseases

• Same as vegetative stage.

Post harvest

Fruit rot

Physical control:

• Hot water treatment at 520C for 4-5min.
• Fruits should be sprayed with the mixture of bio-inoculants.

Botanical control:

• Post harvest dip treatment of fruits with botanical fungicides could also control the diseases during storage.