Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

Vol 26, Issue 1, 2020; Page No.(86-94)

INFLUENCE OF CROP PROTECTIVE AGENTS ON OKRA (ABELMOSCHUS ESCULENTUS L) SEED GERMINATION AND SEEDLING EMERGENCE IN GREEN HOUSE

Pilla Venkateswara Rao, Namuduri Srinivas and Avvs Swamy

Abstract

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L) is a very common vegetable in India. Pests like Shoot and fruit borer, leaf hopper, okra stemflymites and white fly and diseases likeyellow vein mosaic, powdery mildew and wilt are endemic in okra cultivating fields of East Godavari. To curtail these problems judicious use of crop protective agents (CPAs) are a must. Indiscriminate use of crop protective chemicals on okra crop are very dangerous for the plants and humans. To know the effect of crop protective agents on seedling emergence and early seedling growth at zero concentration to double the recommended concentration, the following trial was conducted in a green house. For this experiment shortlisted crop protective agents are Ethion (@ 1.25, 2.5, 3.75 and 5.0 ml/L), Acetamiprid (@ 0.125, 0.25, 0.375 and 0.5g/L), Flubendiamide (@ 0.15, 0.3, 0.45 and 0.6 ml/L), Emamectin Benzoate (@ 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 g/L) and Tebuconazole & Trifloxistrobin (@ 0.625, 1.25, 1.875 and 2.5 g/L) against control (distilled water). From the experiment it is found that seed germination was significantly (P= 0.05) inhibited by all crop protective agents at all concentrations tried. Lowest seed germination was recorded in Tebuconazole + Trifloxystrobin (4.5 to 22.75%) followed by Ethion (17.5 to 48.75%), Acetamiprid (52.5 to 65.25%), Emamectin benzoate (61.25 to 70.75%) and Flubendiamdie (64.0 to 69.5%) compared with control (76%). Correlation studies revealed that seedling length was negatively correlated with Tebuconazole + Trifloxystrobin (-0.72), Ethion (-0.40), Emamectin benzoate (-0.39) and Flubendiamide (-0.37) where as Acetamiprid is neutral (0.08). Rootlets number was negatively correlated with Tebuconazole + Trifloxistrobin (r = -0.27) and Ethion (r = -0.14) while Acetamiprid (r = 0.24), Emamectin benzoate (r = 0.36) and Flubendiamide (r = 0.57) are positively correlated. Rootlets number per seedling was significantly (P=0.05) higher in all concentrations of Ethion (8.13 to 10.68), Acetamiprid (8.45 to 11.03), Emamectin benzoate (9.4 to 12.05) and Flubendiamide (2.9 to 10.43), where as in Tebuconazole +Trifloxystrobin combination (4.05 to 6.23) rootlets number was on par to the control (5.18).