Dolichos Bean

Land and Isolation Requirements Land to be used for seed production shall be free of volunteer plants. In addtion, the land of the selected field should be well drained.  

Cultural Practices

Time of Sowing (a) Dolichos lab lab July to August
(b)Dolichos biflorus September to October
  


Preparation of Land Prepare the field well by ploughing and one to two harrowings, follwed by levelling.


Source of Seed Obtain breeder's/foundation seeds from source approved by a seed certification agency.


Seed Rate 12 to 15 kgper hectare.


Sowing Seeds are sown by dibbling at a distance of 1 metre x 30 cm..


Fertilisation Apply fertilisers on the basis of soil tests. Normally 90kg ammonium sulphage and 40kg superphosphate is given to Dolichos lab lab. the other species do not normally require any fertilisation.


Spacing  


Irrigation Irrigate thecrop as required. It is essential to maintain available soil moisture above fifty per cent during flowering and pod development.


Interculture Keep the fields free of weeds. Tow or three hoeings may be required during the growing period.


Insect and Disease Control Adopt recommended IPM methods


Roguing It is important to rogue seed crop carefully to maintain genetic purity. characters such as, foliage colour, plant type, flower and pod characteristics etc. should be carefully checked and off-types removed from the field at preflowering, flowering and maturity stage. In addition to off-types the plants affected by diseases namely bacterial blight, Anthracnose, Ascocyta blight and bean mosaic should also be invariably removed from time to time as required.


Harvesting and Threshing

Both the species are cut when pods dry and are yellow. Plants are pulled by hand, or cut, and stacked to dry in sun. ripe pods can also be picked from the standing crop. threshing is done after drying the pods/plants in the sun for a few days and then flailing with sticks or bullocks. After threshing , the seed is thoroughly cleaned and dried to moisture content below nine per cent before storage.


Seed Yield The average seed yield variesfrom 300 to 600 kg per hectare.