The sowing of potato crop starts from September and continues till mid October. It faces some crisis at the germination stage in the form of

• High temperature
• Rainfall after sowing
• Seed rotting and poor plant stand
• Curling of leaf and erect stolons
• High temperature at the time of sowing mainly damages the crop by rotting of seeds.
• This problem is experienced only when the crop is sown in early September.
• The early sowing is done to exploit the market by ensuring the supply during early November thereby fetching a good market price.
• Sometimes the farmers want to sow peas / wheat / gobhi sarson after the potato crop.
• Hence they go in for early sowing so as to vacate and prepare the field in time.

The adverse effect of high temperature can be minimized through the following

• Application of light and frequent irrigation
• Application of vegetable mulching
• Adjustment of sowing with the help of meteorological information

The rainy season continues till September end. The rainfall after sowing also affects the crop stand. It leads to

• Formation of hard crust
• Deformation of ridges
• Removal of soil from tubes and its exposure to sunlight
• Reduces the effect of applied herbicide
• Appearance of weed flora

To minimize these adverse affects of rainfall

• Cover the tubers with soil
• Reform the ridges manually
• Break the crust formed
• Apply light irrigation to keep the soil loose
• Apply the first dose of urea after when the germination is complete.

Efforts should be made to meet any eventualities so as to maintain the proper / optimum plant population.

• Do the gap filling as early as possible
• Use sprouted tubers for gap filling
• Before sowing a new tuber, remove the rotten tuber first
• Apply light irrigation after gap filling
• Apply additional fertilizer (nitrogenous) in spots where gap filling is done to give a better start after germination or apply urea spray @ 3 percent for development of better vigour.

The sap-sucking insects and leaf curls also attack the early sown crop and new growth is not formed. To control this

• Spray rogor/ metasystox against jassids and white fly
• Do the hoeing for keeping the field free from host plants
• Follow all the post-sowing operation in time
• Cutting of haulms of seed crop must be done in December end to check the transmission of viral diseases
• Keep the seed crop without haulms in the soil till February end
• Avoid early sowing.