Boron deficiency greatly hampers papaya production. Boron is essential nutrient for papaya. Papaya requires heavy nutrients for its growth and fruit-bearing. Farmers can identify the deficiency by observing the symptoms of the plants. It is sometimes difficult to separate nutrient deficiency symptoms from insect infestation symptoms, viral and disease symptoms.
Identification of Boron Deficiency by Farmers
Farmers have to visit your garden regularly to identify the deficiency symptoms. Otherwise, it is difficult to separate disease-infested plants and boron-deficient plants. We will discuss three symptoms and farmers will be able to identify them by observing those symptoms.
Firstly, farmers have to observe all healthy and vigorous papaya plants to find out curled young leaves. If farmers get that symptom in plants then it is the first symptom of boron deficiency. Secondly, if a farmer walks through a papaya orchard and sees pale green leaf tips on healthy plants, he sees the second sign of deficiency. Thirdly, farmers will see shredded flowers under the flowering plants and deformed & lumpy fruits in the fruiting plants. In severe cases, dwarfed or stunned mature plants are seen in the garden while bearing fruits and become seedless and poorly developed.
In many cases, farmers failed to separate symptoms of boron deficiency & viral infection. Therefore, they applied non-related pesticides to control the problem. By doing this, farmers get less profit and harm the environment.
Solutions to Deficiency
A judicial decision is important to get profit from any kind of farming. For this, farmers have to be clear about the symptoms of boron deficiency and surely identified the symptoms before applying any control measure. Otherwise, farmers may incur losses due to the mistreatment of viral infection by applying boron.
If older papaya plants show this deficiency, they cannot be recovered in older plants. Therefore, boron fertilizer must be given at the time of planting during pit preparation. However, farmers can spray boron on young plants if showing deficiency symptoms. The rate of application should be maintained properly, if not maintained properly, then immature flower and fruit drops will occur. A farmer must follow the company guideline printed on the boron fertilizer pack during applying boron fertilizer in the papaya fields.
