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Paddy first foliar spray (25-50 DAT)

The first scheduled foliar spray in transplanted paddy is timed to active tillering, roughly 25-50 days after transplanting. It is intended as a combined preventive cover for early-season foliar diseases, stem-feeding caterpillars and incipient hopper pressure, alongside corrective foliar nutrition.

Principle

By 25-50 DAT the canopy has closed enough to retain humidity, tillering-stage caterpillars and stem borers are active, and the first wave of leaf-spot and blast lesions appears on susceptible lines. A combined preventive spray is more efficient than separate calls because spray equipment access through a dense canopy is increasingly difficult later in the season.

Implementation

Telangana paddy advisories and ICAR research support a tank mix or sequential combination of:

Adoption context

The tillering spray is the first of two principal spray windows in transplanted paddy, the second being the boot/panicle window (Paddy Panicle Stage Management, Paddy Panicle Stage Fertilization). It applies to transplanted systems (Transplanting Paddy) and to direct-seeded systems with calendar shifted to crop stage.

Limitations

Treatments are best timed to economic thresholds and scouting, not calendar alone. Blanket calendar spraying wastes inputs and accelerates resistance in stem borer and brown planthopper populations. Broad-spectrum pyrethroids at this stage can also flare BPH later by killing natural enemies.

See also: Paddy Panicle Stage Management, Paddy Panicle Stage Fertilization, Paddy Blast Disease, Brown Spot Paddy, Leaf Folder Paddy, Stem Borer Paddy, Micronutrient Deficiency Paddy.

References

  1. Bio-efficacy of chlorantraniliprole 0.4% GR against rice leaf folder and yellow stem borer. ICAR Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences.
  2. Zinc deficiency in rice. IRRI Rice Knowledge Bank.