Weather based prediction models for thrips and bud necrosis virus disease in tomato Timmanna*, Naik Mohan I, Chakravarty A K, Ashokan R, Sridhar V Department of Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, 560065 *Email: thimsento@gmail.com (corresponding author)
Online published on 21 July, 2020. Abstract Population dynamics study of thrips in tomato crop (cv Arka vikas) were carried out during two consecutive kharif seasons during 2016 and 2017. The observations on thrips number, associated bud necrosis virus disease and natural enemies were recorded at weekly intervals. Pooled data of two kharif seasons revealed that thrips activity was found throughout the cropping period. Population of thrips increased gradually from first week after transplanting to flowering and fruit development stage and later decreased as crop mature. Maximum mean thrips population (3.75 to 3.85 thrips/three leaves) was observed during the 27th to 29th Standard Meteorological Week. The % bud necrosis virus disease was linear with the thrips population and 23.87% mean cumulative incidence was recorded. The population of suspected natural enemy the mirid bug, Nesidiocoris tenuis Reuter was found to be linear with that of thrips. Correlation analyses indicated that minimum temperature, rainfall, rainy days, evening relative humidity and Nesidiocoris population have a significant negative correlation with the thrips population, while sunshine hours and morning relative humidity being observed with significant positive correlations. Top Keywords Thrips, mirid bug, bud necrosis, tomato, population dynamics, correlation coefficients, regression. Top |