IPM Packages for Crops

onion IPM techniques

• Soil application of fertilizers and compost inoculated with Trichoderma spp., neem cake, and vesicular arbuscular mycorrhi- za (VAM) fungus improves the nutrients available to the crop, priming the plant’s own defenses and reducing the incidence of nematodes, plant diseases, and weeds. • Selection of healthy bulbs. • Treating bulbs with the Trichoder- ma viride, T. harzianum, Psuedomonas fluorescens , and Bacillus subtilis protects sprouts from fungal diseases especially bulb rot. • Crop rotation with non-host crops help in reducing incidence of soil-borne diseases. • Mulching conserves moisture, harbors natural enemies, and reduces insect pest, mite, and disease incidence. Mulching, especially straw mulch has been helpful in reducing thrips population and improving crop growth.

• Setting up sticky traps of different colors, in the field have been helpful in reducing populations of thrips and leafminers. • Use pheromone traps for monitoring and management of armyworms, Spodoptera spp. • In addition to the use of nuclear poly- hedrosis viruses (NPVs) against S. litura , formulations of the fungi Verticillium, Paecilomyces, Metarhizium , and Beauve- ria species and formulations of beneficial nematodes such as Heterorhabditis sp. and Steinernema sp. can be used. • Neem oil, neem seed kernel extract, and commercial formulations of azadirachtin are effective in controlling the insect pest populations.

Pheromone traps for onion