Chandera M. Muralidharan

Oligonychus tylus has recently emerged as a new pest of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in India's coastal regions, raising concerns given the crop's economic significance and the growing threat of mite infestations. Understanding the basic biology of this species is a critical first step toward assessing the risk it poses- information that has, until now, been largely lacking. To address this gap, we studied the comparative biology and life-table parameters of O. tylus on different host plants under controlled laboratory conditions (28 ± 2 °C, 70 ± 5% RH, 16:8 h L). Interestingly, while both male and female mites lived longest when reared on maize followed by pearl millet, sorghum, and sugarcane, with the shortest lifespan recorded on date palm-the population growth told a different story. The net reproductive rate (R0) was highest on date palm (10.33 ± 0.49 females/female/generation) and lowest on maize (6.17 ± 0.31). The intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) was highest on date palm (0.084 day⁻¹) and lowest on maize (0.050 day⁻¹). In other words, although date palm shortened individual mite lifespans, it supported faster population growth overall, suggesting that this host provides especially favorable conditions for the species to multiply. Given that date palm is commonly grown alongside sugarcane, sorghum, and pearl millet in India's coastal belts, this finding raises an important concern: O. tylus populations building up on date palm could readily spill over and threaten these neighboring crops as well. These results offer valuable baseline data for future pest-risk assessments and integrated management strategies targeting this emerging mite pest.

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is a vital fruit crop in arid and semi-arid regions. Offshoot propagation is a preferred and affordable method for maintaining true-to-type genetic nature. However, survival rates and rooting success vary with the planting media. This study evaluates different media for offshoot propagation over a three-year period. Nine treatments, including soil amendments such as farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost, cocopeat, sawdust, poultry manure, and Pseudomonas fluorescence, were tested. The results indicate that soil + cocopeat (1:1) produced the highest number of primary and secondary roots, while soil + vermicompost and soil + FYM had the highest survival rates.

Research papers on horticulture crops, biotechnology, tomato, apple, fruits vegetables, irrigation, water stress, drought resistance, postharvest technology etc

Date groves of Kachchh encompasses a unique date palm based agro ecosystem mainly developed through seeds hence exhibit great variability and diversity which also offers a rich gene pool. After endorsing the variety ‘Barhee’ for cultivation in Kachchh, its adaptability attained great momentum increasing the area to about 800 ha within a short period. Non availability and high cost of tissue culture planting material still remain a challenge. The great diversity which exists in the groves is also not fully exploited for the benefit of farmers. On set of monsoon coinciding with the harvest pose a great risk and covering with plastic coated material before monsoon offers some protection. The identification and characterization of good male palms to trap the metaxenia effect, collection and storage of pollen, standardization of pollination techniques etc. need improvement for enhancing the productivity. Many operations like pollination, harvesting etc. are time bound and labour intensive and hence need to be mechanized. The high water requirement of the crop is a matter of debate for its further expansion in the arid zones, where water is very scarce. No serious attempt has been made to explore the possibility for value addition and post harvest techniques especially for the low quality fruits, which need to be addressed on priority. Among the biotic stress, Red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus is a great threat especially in young orchards, for which a periodical scouting and monitoring through pheromones is useful. This crop is very hard and highly salt tolerant and can survive in harsh climatic conditions under problematic and degraded soil with issue related to salinity. There is a great potential for this crop to rejuvenate such vast degraded and problematic soil to productive.