Redgram

Seed Production

Seed Production

• Red gram is known as pigeonpea. In Karnataka, redgram is being growth in an area of about 4 lakh ha. The crop can be grown in almost all types of soils. However, it does best on well drained, light to medium soils, and deep enough to permit a free development of roots. Bright sunny weather is needed during flowering and pod ripening stages.

Varieties recommended for the state are given below

Varieties	Duration (days)	Area
Hyd.3C	150 to 200	Southern parts
TTB-7	160 to 210	-do-

Seed production techniques

Land requirement

• Select fields on which the same kind of crop was not grown in the previous season unless the previous crop was same variety and approved by the certification agency for varietal purity. In addition, the soils should be light, well drained with a natural pH.

Isolation requirements

• Redgram is often cross-pollinated by bees and other insects. Therefore, for maintaining varietal purity an isolation of 200 meters for foundation seed class and 100 meters for certified seed class is necessary.

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Brief cultural practices

Preparation of land

• Preparation of land by repeated ploughings and harrowings to obtain a fairly pulverised seed bed free from weeds.
• Time of sowing: Sowing of seed crop may be taken up from May to July. However, early sowing is advantageous for better yields.
• Source of seed: Obtain nucleus/breeder/foundation seed from approved source. About 15-20 kg seed is required per ha depending upon seed size.
• Method of sowing: After land is ready for sowing, apply the entire dose of fertilizers and sow the seeds with seed drill or by plough sole in 90 cam rows at 20 cm apart (for May sowing) and provide 60 cm between rows for July sowing. The depth of seeding should not be more than 5 cm.
• Manures and fertilizers: Incorporate about 7.5 tonnes of FYM or compost per ha at the time of land preparation. Apply 25 kg N and 50 kg P₂O₅ and 25 kg K₂O per ha as basal dose at the time of sowing.
• Irrigation and interculture: Light irrigation is required after sowing to ensure good germination. One irrigation at flowering and subsequent irrigations after flowering is necessary depending upon the soil and weather conditions.
• Intercultivate the crop 2-3 times and earthup the crop before flowering to keep the seed plots free of weeds.

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Plant protection

Important insects and diseases

Insects

• Pod borer, stem weevil and web worm

Disease

• Wilt and Mosaic

Schedule

• Spray the crop with 18 ml Methyl parathion 50 EC or 36 ml endosulfan 35 EC or 36 ml quinolphos 25 EC or 18 ml Monocrotophos 40 EC or 36 ml phosalene 35 EC in 18 litres of water just before flowering.
• Repeat the same spray after 15 days
• Give the third spray 15 days after the second spray, if the insect persists.
• In place of spraying, dust the crop with 25 kg malathion 5 per cent dust per ha.

Rogueing

• Rouge out the off type and diseased plants (affected by wilt, leaf spot, stem canker, yellow mosaic virus and sterility virus) from the seed fields as and when noticed.
• Rogueing of off types should be done at the time of pre-flowering, initiation of flowering and at maturity every alternate day based on identifiable characters of off types. This is a very important practice for achieving the highest genetic purity.

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Harvesting and Threshing

• The crop is harvested soon after the seed is mature. The harvesting is normally done with sickle and the crop is left in the field to dry for about a week. Threshing is done by beating the plants with sticks. It is better to harvest the pods as and when they reach physiological maturity without being delayed or exposed to wetting and drying to maintain high germination with the least deterioration in storage.

Drying, grading, treating and bagging

• Threshed seed produce should be dried properly on a tarpaulin in sun and graded by using 9.52 mmR x 3.97 mmR or 3.18 mm oblong sieve with the help of seed cleaner-cum-grader. Even after grading, it is better to hand pick discoloured and broken seeds, if found to improve seed quality. Seeds having a moisture content of not more than 9 per cent should be packed preferably in polythene lined gunny bags or cloth bag and kept on wooden pallets in a cool and dry ventilated seed store.
• Treat the seed with Thiram 75 per cent WP at 2 gm per kg and also dust the seed bags with 5 per cent malathion dust before storage.

Seed Yeild

• An average yield of 12 to 15 quintals can be expected per hectare

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Minimum seed certification standards

Field Inspection

• A minimum of two inspections shall be made during flowering and before harvesting.

Field standards

• General requirements

Isolation

• Pigeon pea seed fields shall be isolated from the contaminants as detailed below.

Types	minimum Distance (meters)
	Foundation	Certified
Fields of other varieties Fields of same variety but not conforming to varietal purity for certification.	200 200	100 100

Seed Standards	Foundation	Certified
Pure seed (min.)	98.0%	98.0%
Inert matter (max)	2.0%	2.0%
Other crop seeds (max)	5/kg	10/kg
Weed seeds (max)	5/kg	10/kg
Other distinguishable varieties (max.)	100/kg	20/kg
Germination including hard seeds (min)	75%	75%
Moisture (max)	9.0%	9.0%
For varpour proof containers (max)	8.0%	8.0%
Offtypes(min)	0.1%	0.20%

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