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Chilly growing is a profitable business in Pakistan.

Chili is used in daily cooking and put a valuable taste in curries. Its production is done whole year half-season based on its original climate and another half-season its forcing is done. It is grown in an open field as well as in tunnels. It is much more successful in the tunnel forming. In this article, you will learn about the chili growing method. This article will be discussed under the following outlines,

  • Selection of variety
  • Seed rate
  • Nursery preparation
  • Precaution while shifting
  • Plant protection
  • Land preparation
  • Fertilizer and irrigation
chilly growing season

Selection of variety and seed quantity

Generally, its selection is depended upon the grower that whether he want green chilies or in red form. For red chilies, very famous and commonly cultivated varieties like Sky red, Sky red 2 is very helpful in maintaining the red color provided by the different multinational companies like Syngenta, Haji sons, etc. If the grower goal is to sell for only green chilies, then desi variety called “Desi Chinioty” is good for this purpose. For an acre, about 500g of seed required.   

Nursery preparation

Nursery preparation is the initial step after selecting the seeds with a suitable variety. Nursery preparation time is different for a whole season because chilies can be grown in open fields and tunnels as well. For high and walk-in tunnels, nursery preparation is done on the 15 September and the nursery is ready for transplant after 30 days. For low tunnels, chilies nursery is started to prepare from the 1st of November and shifted in low tunnels at starting of December while for the open field chilies nursery is grown from the 15 of December and shifted when frost danger is gone after the second week of February in Pakistan.

Important note for shifting the plant in the field

Chilies tiny plants which grow up to 9-10 inches taller in height with vigorous shape should be selected for transplanting in the field. Chilies plants are very sensitive to the water, it is suggested that before the transplanting irrigate the field and stop irrigation until the corners of the bed should be in ‘watter’ condition. Do not directly expose the water to the tiny roots of chilly plants otherwise plant will be dead no matter if it enough healthier early.

Important note

It is suggested especially that chilly plant is more susceptible to soil-borne diseases, to prevent such a kind of problem of fungus, before transplanting tiny plants should be treated with their roots with a prepared solution of Topsin-M and Confidor.

In a tunnel, the plant gets more height and less root development, so that in case of high wind plant can be uprooted with high wind speed. To overcome this issue, support plants from both lines with thread. 

The time of transplanting is very important, never transplant in hot. Its best suitable time for transplanting in the field is after 4 pm when the temperature gets lower.

Land preparation

Land should be prepared well. Initially remove the debris and remnants of the previous crop. Plowed the field very well and make the soil pulverize and prepare the bed with 2 ft of size/width and keep the water channel enough wider up to 3 ft of width. On bed two lines are used for planting in which plant to plant distance is kept 1 ft. For low tunnel, the bed prepared is much wider than in comparison with high and walk-in tunnel farming, where bed size is 5 ft wider.

Fertilizer and irrigation

Irrigation is depended upon the season, climate, temperature. Normally, it is kept regular with an interval of a week. For irrigation, it should be careful that water should not touch the roots directly, keep wrapping up the soil around the stem as the plant grows, and be cautious also that water should not event touch with the stem. For fertilizer initially before transplanting field should be well fed with well rotten farm-yard manure. Appl y a half bag of Urea, 2 bags of DAP, and 1 bag of SOP at the time of transplanting, when the crop reach the flowering stage (after 40-60 days of transplanting) apply a half bag of Urea, similarly, half bag of Urea at the time of fruiting and apply the half bag of Urea after every two pickings. The application of fertilizer is done mostly with flooding in this way it is very useful for the chilly crops. 

Diseases and pests

This is very important to understand for the grower that chilly crop is very sensitive to different insect and diseases. So, prevention is a term used in horticulture, which means keeping all activity safe so that plants should be disease and pest-free in the environment. So, if we keep looking from start to end until its last picking then it will be easier to understand, but from start, the crop needs more attention.

Step 1

Whenever you purchase the seeds, they should be treated with fungicides, these fungicides should be purchased from well-reputed companies like Syngenta. Topsin-M or Amidacloprid solutions are suggested or may be suggested by the companies where you may get a visit.

Step 2

When the nursery is prepared and ready for shifting in the field its root should be treated with fungicides just like above suggested in step 1.

Step 3

Clean and disinfect the hole where the plant is transplanted in the field with the drench method with fungicides. These are initial parameters, which needed to keep under consideration but there are also a few diseases that are very common.

Plant dieback

Well, it is the situation when a crop is going normally but suddenly you may observe that one of the plants is dried and leaves get shrink and result in plant death. This is happening because the plant did not be able to get the water and nutrients from the soil and unable to survive. This is due to the following main reasons,

  • Due to fusarium wilt
  • Due to another fungus phytoshora wilt
  • Due to root rot
  • Due to nematode

So, what would we do now, simply eradicate the dying and shrinking plant another wise whole field will be just like that plant. To avoid this problem next time you need to follow all precautionary measures as just it is mentioned above.

Plant stem cut

Sometimes, the grower may observe that the plant’s stem is cut. This is happening due to pest cutworm which remains active at night and hides itself during the daytime. To avoid this problem suddenly, take sand mix with fungicides and spread it into the plant hole in the root system this will be helpful to get rid of all insects.

Plant leaf curl virus

This is happening due to the vector called whitefly, for this purpose you need to spray the insecticides from well-reputed companies in the month of March and April when the whitefly is active.

Yield and profit

Its estimated production per acre is 10 to 12 thousand kg. One of the farmers was interviewed and asked for its yield and profit he replied that my total expenditure on half an acre is about 60 to 80 thousand rupees and its production was gained about 2500 kg per half an acre and sold in the market with 200 rupees per 5 kg and revenue was about 5 lakh. This profit is for green chilies if you sold out red chilies their price in the market is higher and double than green chilies so we can estimate up to 10 lakhs for profit.

Conclusions

  • Select the variety based on purpose whether it will be sold out as green or red.
  • The nursery should be treated with fungicides when it is near about shifting.
  • Do not allow to directly expose the plant root in water.
  • With the time as crop nourished its plant should be practice with earthing up.
  • Keep the necessary measurement from start to the end for plant protection.
  • Plant dieback and cutworms are common in the chilly crop.
  • Its yield depends upon the variety and profit is half for green and double for red chilies.

I hope this article helps you a lot.

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