Seed production techniques in
greengram & blackgram varieties

GREENGRAM & BLACKGRAM
Floral biology
• Highly self-pollinated
• Extend of cross pollination is up to 5-10%
• Flowers small, yellow and clustered at the top of
the peduncle
• Stamen 10 (9+1) diadelphous, ovary superior,
unilocular with few ovules

In angiosperms the term locule usually refers to a chamber
within an ovary of the flower and fruits Depending on the
number of locules in the ovary, fruits can be classified as uni-
locular (unilocular), bi-locular, tri-locular or multi-locular.

• Flowers start opening early in the morning
and are completely open between 7 to 8 AM
• Anthers begin to shed pollen in the
previous day evening before the flowers
open and anthesis is complete before mid-
night (Cleistogamous upto 46 %)

GREENGRAM VARIETIES
CO 5, CO 6, CO (Gg) 7, CO8, K1, VRM (Gg) 1,
VBN (Gg) 2, VBN (Gg) 3, ADT 2, ADT 3.
BLACKGRAM VARIETIES
VBN 4, VBN (Bg) 5, VBN 6, VBN (Bg) 7, VBN 8,
CO 6, MDU 1, KKM 1, ADT 3, ADT 5, ADT 6.

Seeds and sowing
• Seeds selected from authenticated source
• Off coloured seeds should be removed from normal coloured
• Hard seed percentage may exceed to 10%, use commercial H2SO4 for
scarification.
• At that time seeds should be scarified with for 2 minutes and should be washed
thoroughly and used for sowing
• Seed treated with fungicide (Carbendazim @ 2 g / kg) and insecticide (Carbaryl
@ 200 mg / kg) before sowing for early protection against diseases and insects
• Seeds treated with 3 packet of multi strain Rhizobium culture / ha
Seed hardening
• In dryland sowing, the seeds can be soaked in 1/3 volume of 100 ppm of FeSO4
(Blackgram) or ZnSO4 (Greengram) and should be dried back to original
moisture content by shade drying.

Isolation distance
FS CS
Field of other varieties - 10 m 5 m
Field of same variety - 10 m 5 m
Spacing
Greengram 30 x 15 cm Blackgram 25 x 15 cm

Season
• Dibbled at 3-4 cm depth
• Grown in all 3 seasons but June-July is the best season
• But sowing should be taken up in such a way that maturation period
does not coincide with rain, which will increase the off coloured seed
per cent in the seed lot.
• In summer production, hard seed content will increase when compared
to other seasons.
Manures and fertilizers
Compost : 12.5 kg/ha
NPK : 25:50:0 kg/ha
Foliar spray : With micronutrient mixture on 25th & 40th DAS

Foliar application
Spray 2% DAP at the time of first appearance of flowers and a
second spray 15 days after first spray for enhanced seed set.
Spray NAA 40 ppm at first flowering and a second spray after
a fortnight to reduce the flower drop.

Water management
• Irrigate at the time of sowing followed by life irrigation on 3rd day
• Irrigate at intervals of 10-15 days depending upon soil moisture and
climatic conditions
• Apply KCl at 0.5% as foliar spray during vegetative stage if there is a
moisture stress
Weed management
• Spray fluchloralin 1.5 l/ha with 900 l of water + HW on 30-35 DAS

Pest & disease management
Pest
Pod borer - Apply any of the following insecticides at 25 kg/ha.
Endosulfan 4% D; Quinolphos 1.5% D; phosalone 4% D and
Carbaryl 5% D or spray per ha Endosulfan 35 EC 1.01 or
Monocrotophos 36 WSC 500 ml, (Spray fluid 500 l/ha).
Disease
Powdery mildew: Carbendazim 250 g or
Wettable sulphur 2.5 kg/ha
Rust: Mancozeb 1 kg or Wettable sulphur 2.5
kg/ha
Leaf spot & Tip blight: Carbendazim 250 g/ha

Yellow mosaic and leaf crinckle:
Pull out and destroy plants infected in the early stage of growth
(upto 30 days) and spray any one of the following insecticides after
the appearance of the disease.
Monocrotophos 500 ml/ha, Methyl demeton 500 ml/ha and repeat after 15
days, if necessary.
For seed crop, the plants affected by leaf crinckle should be
periodically removed up to 45 days after sowing since the leaf
crinckle virus is seed borne.
Root rot
Treat the seeds with tale formulation of Trichoderma viride @ 4
g/ha seed or Pseudomonas fluorescence @ 10 g/kg seed.

Roguing
• Vegetative phase to reproduction phase - leaf colour, plant
stature, leaf shape, pod colour, flower colour, and seed colour
• In addition to the off types the pest affected and mosaic affected
plants should be removed
Pre-harvest sanitation spray
• To avoid bruchid infestation
- crop should be sprayed with endosulphon 0.07% for 3 times at 10
days interval before harvest
• Field standards FS CS
• Off types 0.1 % 0.2 %

Harvesting
• Seeds attain Physioological Maturity 30 days after 50% flowering
• Colour of the pod turns green to black
• Moisture Content at this stage will be 17-18%
Processing
• Pods are dried to 12-13% MC are thrashed and pre-cleaned
• Seeds should be size graded using BSS 7 x 7 wire mesh sieve for
homogenizing the seed lot

Seed treatment
• Graded seeds further dried to 7-8% MC and treated with chemicals mentioned
in the order of preference
• Thiram 75% WDP 75 g & Carbaryl 7.5 g dissolved in 500 ml of water / Q of seed
• Neem seed kernel powder 3% effectively control the infestation of storage pest
particularly Bruchid beetle
Pack in polythene lined gunny bags for storage
Storage

Seed standards
Characters Maximum permitted %
Foundation Seed Certified seed
Physical purity (Max) % 98 98
Inert matter (min) % 2 2
Other crop seed (Max) 5/kg 10/kg
Weed seed (Max) 5/kg 10/kg
Germination (%) (Min) 75 75
Moisture content
i) Open storage (Max)
ii) Vapour proof containers
9
8
9
8