Evaluation of some botanicals against citrus psylla Diaphorina citrii Reena*, Singh V B1, Jamwal S, Sinha B K2, Singh A P, Kumar Rakesh1, Singh Permendra ACRA, Dhiansar, SKUAST- Jammu, Bari Brahmana, 181133 1RHRSS, Raya, SKUAST-Jammu, Raya Suchani, Vijaypur, 181143 2Division of Plant Physiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, SKUAST-J, Chatha, 180009 *Email: bkreena12@gmail.com (corresponding author)
Online published on 21 July, 2020. Abstract Five abundantly locally available roadside growing shrubs were collected, shade dried and extracts were prepared in cow urine. These extracts were evaluated against citrus psylla, Diaphorina citrii, one of the major pests infesting citrus in Jammu and Samba districts, which is also responsible for the citrus greening disease. Citrus trees planted at the Research Farm of Advanced Centre for Rainfed Agriculture, Dhiansar, Bari Brahmana and Rainfed Horticulture Research Sub Station, Raya Suchani, Vijaypur, were infested with citrus psylla. It was observed that the psylla population was more during kharif as compared to rabi. The prepared extracts were sprayed on trees during kharif, 2014 and 2015 at the ACRA, Dhiansar and during kharif, 2016 at the RHRSS, Raya, when psylla population crossed the economic threshold level. The control trees were sprayed with cow urine alone and commonly used insecticides viz., imidacloprid @ 0.5 ml/l water, imidacloprid @ 1.0 ml/l and dimethoate @ 1.5 ml/l. Prespray and post spray counts were made and % reduction worked out after 3 and 5 days after spray (DAS). Verbascum thapsus extract was observed to give maximum reduction (59.14 and 58.17%, respectively at ACRA and RRSS research farm); that was more than imidacloprid @ 0.5 ml/l spray (42.61 and 40.76%, respectively at ACRA and RRSS research farm) and at par with imidacloprid @ 1.0 ml/l spray (62.53 and 62.63%, respectively at ACRA and RRSS research farm). This V. thapsus extract has great potential as botanical and can be easily incorporated in IPM. Top Keywords Diaphorina citrii, cow urine, indigenous plant extracts, Verbascum thapsus, Calotropis procera, Cannabis sativa, imidacloprid, dimethoate. Top |