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Sunflower




bulet.jpg (4991 bytes) Introduction
bulet.jpg (4805 bytes) Requirement
Climate
Soil
bulet.jpg (4991 bytes) Varieties
bulet.jpg (4805 bytes) Land preparation and sowing
bulet.jpg (4805 bytes) Fertilizers
bulet.jpg (4805 bytes) Irrigation
Plant protection
Pest
bulet.jpg (4805 bytes)

Diseases

Leaf-rust and alternaria leaf-spot
Root-rot
bulet.jpg (4805 bytes)

Harvesting and yield

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L). is mainly grown for its oil. The oil is used for culinary purpose in the preparation of vanaspati and in the manufacture of soaps and cosmetics. Its cake is rich in protein and is used as a cattle and poultry feed.

Requirement
Climate
This crop requires a cool climate during germination and seedling growth, warm weather from the seedling stage up to flowering and non-cloudy, sunny days during flowering to maturity.
Soil
It performs well in deep, neutral and well-drained light soils as well as in heavy soils. The optimum pH of the soils for this crop is 6.5-8.5.

Varieties

E.C.68413 (Vniimk 8931), E.C. 68414 (Peredovick), E.C. 68415 (Armavirskij), E.C. 68414 (Peredovick), E.C. 68415 (Armavirskij), E.C. 69874 (Armaverts) and Sunrise. Recently, a short-duration variety, E.C. 101495 (Cernianka).

Land preparation and sowing

Sunflower is one crop in the case of which, the season of planting are not the limiting factors. Three to four ploughing and diskings are sufficient for preparing the land. Soil should be moist at least 10cm deep before sowing and this condition necessitates good soaking rains or irrigation before sowing. Seed rate is 8-10kg of well-filled seeds per hectare. For controlling seed-borne fungal diseases, seed treatment with either Brassical or Captan @3g per kg of seed is recommended. The pre-soaking of seed for 12-24 hours ensures a rapid and high percentage of germination, an early emergence and establishment of the crop. The seed is drilled at a depth of 5cm by adopting a spacing of 45cm between rows and 30cm between plants in the row.

Fertilizers

The crop performs best when both organic and inorganic fertilizers are applied to it. The fertilizer Nitrogen:Phosphrous:Potash (NPK) schedules recommended in the case of rainfed and irrigated crops are 20:30:20 and 40:60:40 kg (NPK) of per hectare, respectively.

Irrigation
In general, for light soils 9-10 and for heavy soils 5-6 irrigations are sufficient. The critical stages of moisture requirement are germination, capitulum initiation, flowering and grain-filling.
Plant protection
Pest

Grasshopper (Atractomorpha crenulata F.) and Capitulum-borer (Heliothis armigera Hb).

  • Control

Spray or dust endosulphan 35 E.C. 1000ml in 500 litre water per hectare or dust cabaryl 10% 25kg per ha.

Diseases

Leaf-rust and alternaria leaf-spot
  • Control
Spray 0.1% of either Dithane M-45 or Dithane Z-78

Root-rot

  • Control

The root-rot is controlled by drenching the soil with either Brassical or wet ceresan

Harvesting and yield

The sunflower crop matures in 90-100 days. The crop has to be harvested when the lower side of the head turns yellow and some of the bracts dry up. The mature heads are cut with a sickle and are dried by exposing the upper side with seeds to the sun. The well-dried heads are beaten with sticks to separate the seeds. The cleaned seed is dried well and stored in gunny bags. The sunflower crop gives a grain yield of 300-500 kg per ha under rainfed conditions and 800-1200 kg per ha when grown under irrigation.