ManagementActivity Pre planting Common cultural practices: Prepare proper pits. Timely planting should be done. Maintain proper spacing. A pit of size of 90 x 90 x 90 cm is preferred when the soils are deep and well drained. In heavy soils with added impedance to drainage, pit size of 60 x 60 x 60 cm is preferable. Pits should be filled with top soil, farm yard manure and sand. Fill the pit with FYM, red earth and sand mixture. Seedling should be planted at the center of the pit and put soil to cover up to the collar region of the seedling. Weeds Cultural control: Banana can be raised as a shade crop in the interspaces during the initial years. Prepare beds of 1-1.5 m width and of convenient length with 75 cm space between beds. In areas where drainage is poor, prepare raised beds (10-20 cm height) Nursery stage Common cultural practices: Select fully ripen nuts for use as seeds. Select early early-bearing and high yielding varieties.Select planting sites with deep well-drained soil without high water trouble. Do deep ploughing or digging. Soil solarization by using transparent polyethylene sheets in nursery plots Select good mother palm i.e. must be of 20 years of age, yield more than 80 nuts/annum, etc Nutrients Apply basal dose of well decomposed FYM or vermicompost @ 2 t/ acre treated with Trichoderma 2-3 weeks before planting seed nuts in sand bed nursery. Recyling biomass using areca materials Polythene bags (25x 15cm, 150 gauge) filled with potting mixture (top soil: farm yard manure: sand 7:3:2) can also be used to raise secondary nursery Weeds Periodical weeding and mulching with organic materials should be done. In nursery, weeds should be removed manually. Seed and seedling stage Common cultural practices: Sow seeds in the spacing of 5-6 cm cover the seed nuts with sand. Transplant sprouts 90 days old having two to three leaves in the secondary nursery at a spacing of 30×30 cm. Prepare secondary beds of 150 cm width of convenient length. Provide shade by growing banana or Coccinia indica by artificial pandal. Apply recommended dose of fertilizer or manure. Provide irrigation properly. Nutrients Apply 12 Kg of green leaf and 12 Kg compost or farm yard manure per plant at the time of planting. A fertilizer dose of 100 g N, 40 g P2O5 and 140 g K2O per palm per year is recommended. Terracing should be provided in undulated lands to prevent soil erosion Weeds Weeds should be removed from pits at the time of planting. Straw/ leaf mulches are provided after planting to suppress the weed growth around young seedlings. Cover crop and intercrop may be grown between the rows. * Apply Trichoderma viride/ harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescens as seeds/ seedlings/ planting materials 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 stage Common cultural practices: Collect and destroy crop debris Provide irrigation at critical stages of the crop. Avoid water logging. Regulate shade in thickly shaded areas. Enhance parasitic activity by avoiding chemical spray, when 1-2 larval parasitoids are observed. Remove and destroy collateral/alternate hosts such as castor, ginger, turmeric in the immediate vicinity. Maintain optimum plant density. Ensure adequate shade of 65-70% in endemic areas and irrigate the crop before attaining critical period. Fill gaps with healthy disease free materials. Mulching the plant basins with green leaves and other organic materials during summer months conserves and maintains the population of native beneficial microflora. Common mechanical practices: Handpick the older larvae during early stages Collect and destroy plant parts infested with insect pest and diseases Handpick the gregarious caterpillars and the cocoons which are found on stem and destroy them in kerosene mixed water. Use yellow sticky traps @ 4-5 trap/acre Use light trap @ 1/acre and operate between 6 pm and 10 pm Install pheromone traps @ 4-5/acre for monitoring adult moths activity (replace the lures with fresh lures after every 2-3 weeks) Erecting of bird perches @ 20/acre for encouraging predatory birds such as King crow, common mynah etc. Set up bonfire during evening hours at 7-8 pm Common biological practices: Conserve natural enemies through ecological engineering Augmentative release of natural enemies Nutrients For seedlings, 1/3 of the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers (100 g N, 40 g P2O5 and 140 g K2O per palm) is sufficient during first year; 2/3 during the second year and full dose from third year onwards. Under rainfed conditions, 1/3 of the recommended dose in April-May and 2/3 in September-October should be applied. Under irrigated conditions, the April-May dose can be applied in February. During February or April-May, broadcast the fertilizer around the base of each palm after weeding and mix with the soil by light forking During September-October, open the basin to a radius of 75 to 100 cm and to a depth of 15-20 cm, apply the fertilizer and cover with dug soil. Weeds Timely hoeing & hand tool weeding should be done manually / mechanically during initial years. Soil should be loosened with light digging in October-November. Weeding is done twice or thrice a year by spade digging Phytophagous mite Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Cultural control: Collect and destroy the heavily infested and drying leaves of young palm in the initial foci of colonization Scales Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Biological control: Release Chilocorus nigritus periodically @ 4-5 beetles/palm Conserve predators such as coccinellid beetles (C. nigritus and C. circumdatus) Spindle bugs Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Cultural control: Digging and forking of the soil before and after the monsoon will help in eliminating the various developmental stages of the beetle. Basal stem rot/foot rot/anaberoga/Gan oderma Wilt Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Cultural control: Improve drainage. Avoid dense planting. Avoid flood irrigation and water flowing from infected palms to healthy palms. Avoid repeated ploughing and digging in the diseased gardens. Balanced manuring and fertilizer application. Cutting and burning of dead palms along with the bole and roots should be followed strictly. Yellow leaf disease Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Mechanical control: Remove and destroy the diseased palms in the mildly affected areas to prevent the spread. Cultural control: Biomass recycling and excess application of phosphorus 100g/palm Nematodes Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Mechanical control: Mechanically remove left over/residual parts of the plant Reproductive stage Nutrients Apply deficient micronutrients if any based on soil test recommendations Weeds Intercultural operations should be done manually or mechanically from time to time to reduce the weed incidence. Bud rot Mechanical control: Remove and destroy the diseased palms in the mildly affected areas to prevent the spread. Root grub Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Cultural control: Deep summer ploughing to expose the immature stages for avian predation. Mechanical control: Collection and destruction of beetles emerging from the soil during pre-monsoon showers in the evening hours Install light traps @ 1 trap/acre and operate between 6 pm and 10 pm Biological control: Conserve and augment entomopathogenic nematodes such as Heterorhabditis spp. and Steinernema spp. Application of neem cake @ 2 Kg/palm/year at the base of the plant during June-July Inflorescence stage Inflorescence caterpillar Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Mechanical control: Affected spadices may be opened and if all the female flowers have been damaged the inflorescence should be removed and burnt. Inflorescence die back or bud shedding Mechanical control: Remove the fully affected inflorescence and destroy them to prevent spread. Nut formation stage Koleroga/mahali/fruit rot/bud rot Mechanical control: Collect all the infected nuts and other plant parts and destroy Cover the bunches with polybags Pentatomid bug Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Mechanical control: Remove and destroy the alternate hosts such as chillies, ladies finger, bitter gourd etc Harvest and storage Storage pests: Coffee bean weevil Cigarette beetle Common cultural, mechanical and biological practices Mechanical control: Sun dry the fully ripened nuts by evenly spreading on ground or cement floor Source:NIPHM, Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine & Storage