Sunflower

Varieties / hybrids

• Morden: Short duration (80-85 days) dwarf variety. Yield potential is 12-15q ha^-1 under rainfed and 18-20q ha^-1 under irrigation. Highly productive and suitable for all types of environments. Oil content varies from 40 to 44%.
• APSH 11 : Medium duration (90-95 days). Yields 15-20q ha^-1 under rainfed and 20-25 q ha^-1 under irrigation. Oil content 40-42%.
• KBSH 1 : Medium duration (90-95 days). Yields 15-20q ha^-1 under rainfed and 20-25q ha^-1 under irrigation. Oil content 42-45%.
• NDSH 1 : Matures in 85-90 days, yield potential is 16-20q ha^-1 under rainfed and 20-25 q ha^-1 under irrigation. Resistant to downey mildew, tolerant to rust and moisture stress.
• In addition, hybrids from private sector MSFH 17 (100-105 days) and Jwalamukhi, PAC 1091etc., can also be grown. They yield around 15-20 q ha^-1 with oil content of 38-42%.

Sowing time

• Kharif: July last week to second week of August
• Kharif sowings should be adjusted to avoid synchronisation of reproductive stage with heavy rain.
• In deep black and high rainfall areas grow sunflower on ridges and furrows. In light black soils sowing between 10^th August and 20^th August is advantageous.
• Sow the crop during August in black soils. Sowings have to completed early to avoid the moisture stress during seed filling stage in red soils.

Seeds and seeding

• For varieties sow 8-10kg ha-1 and for hybrids 5kg ha-1 both under rainfed and irrigated conditions respectively.
• Soak the seed in water for 24 hours and shade dry. Treat the seed with imidachloprid 5g /kg of seed.
• Adopt a spacing of 60x30cm for hybrid and varieties in heavy and medium soils.
• For varieties (Morden) adopt 45x20cm in light soils and 45x30cm in medium soils. Thinning should be done 10-15days after seeding leaving one plant / hill.

Manures and fertilizers

• FYM at 10t ha-1 has to be incorporated during preparatory tillage. For rainfed crop 60:60:30 NPK ha-1 is optimum.
• Twenty kg N entire P and K has to be applied as basal and remaining 40 N in two equal splits at 25-30 & 55 days after sowing. For irrigated hybrids 75:90:30 NPK ha^-1 is optimum.
• Twenty –five N entire P and K have to be applied as basal and remaining 50 N in two equal splits at 25-30 and 55 days after sowing. Placement is better than broadcasting.

Weed Management

• Weeding should be completed within 45 days after sowing.
• Spray pendimethalin @ 1kg a.i ha^-1 or butachlor @ 1.5kg a.i ha^-1 or fluchloralin @ 3.2 l ha^-1 as a pre-emergence application over the soil. One suplementary hand-weeding has to be done for best results.

Irrigation / Drainage

• Three to five irrigations are required depending on the nature of soil.
• Light soils require more irrigations than heavy soils.
• Bud initiation, flowering and seed filling phases are sensitive to soil moisture stress. There should not be any water stagnation during the crop period. Provide adequate drainage.

Hand pollination

• Where the bee activity is low, resort to hand pollination at the time of flowering on alternate days for about 2 weeks between 8 and 11am. Cover the palm with muslin cloth and gently rub the heads with pollen of adjacent heads. This is essential in varieties like Morden.

Drought Management (rainfed crop)

• Apply FYM
• Contour cultivation
• Dead furrows
• Early weeding and thinning
• Frequent interculture
• If available, one irrigation at flower initiation.

Pest Management

• Jassids, white flies and other sucking pests
• Spray monocrotophos @ 1.6ml l^-1.

Tobacco caterpillar

• As indicated under groundnut

Head borer

• Monitoring for egg laying and simultaneous application of monocrotophos @ 2.0ml or endosulfan @ 3.0ml l^-1 will minimise the incidence. Dusting with endosulfan 4% dust or carbaryl 5% dust at bud initiation stage reduces the incidence.
• During peak flowering / pollination, spray endosulfan @ 3.0ml l^-1. During seed filling hand picking of grown up larvae is economical.

Disease Management

Alternaria Leaf blight :

• Spray mancozeb @ 2.5g l^-1 twice or thrice at 10days interval immediately after the first appearance of symptoms (35DAS).

Necrosis disease

Symptoms

• This disease appears in all the growth stages of the crop.
• Necrosis on part of the leaf lamlna near the midrib results in twisting of leaf, later necrosis extends to petiole and stem.
• Tip of the growing plant becomes necrotic, finally plants fail to produce flowers and die.
• Necrosis at bud formation stage leads to partial twisting of capitulum.
• Necrosis on bracts and back of the capitulum is common.
• Opening of flower head, expansion of captimum and seed filling are affected depending on the stage at which the flower bud / capitulum is infected by necrosis.
• Weed hosts of this virus are Parthenium hysterophorus, Xanthium strumarium and Argemone mexicana.

Management

• Remove weeds and self-sown crops, in and around field.
• Sow 3-4 rows of Sorghum as a border crop.
• Treat the seeds with imidachloprid @ 5g kg^-1 seed to protect the crop from thrips.
• Carefully uproot and destroy infected plants by buying.
• Prophylactic sprays (3 to 4) at 15 days interval, starting from 15 days old seedling to 50per cent flowering stage with systemic insecticides like imidachloprid @ 3.75 ml per 15 litres of water or metasystox @ 2ml l^-1 of water.

Impact points

• Don’t sow sunflower crop in June since it is a late Kharif crop.
• Purchase seed from reliable source.
• Seed treatment is a must.
• Apply recommended nitrogen in 2 or 3 split doses.
• Adopt neem oil sprays. In urgent cases use endosulfan spray only.
• Don’t spray any insecticide at flowering. Protect crop from parrot damage by arranging drum beating / carbide guns / reflecting ribbons etc.
• Protect the crop from gram caterpillar, Tobacco caterpillar and parrots.

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