Cultural
practices
Cultural
practices involve sanitation (removal of infected debris), use of certified
planting material, growing crop during vector-free/low vector period, crop
rotation, use of barrier crops to check spread of the vector and virus,
isolation of the crop, etc. Tospovirus causing stem necrosis disease in central
and western parts of India can be avoided by delaying planting from September
end/October beginning to last week of October/1st week of November in
the northern Indo Gangetic plains.
Some weeds like Solanum nigrum,
Datura metel, D.stramonium and Polygonum
spp. act as reservoirs of many potato viruses and their eradication can help in
the management of viral diseases.
Disinfection of implements before use for cultural practices particularly
in seed plots is also helpful in checking the spread of contagious viruses like
PVX, PVS and the viroid PSTVd from one field to another.
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