Down to earth: dr satish narula

Use the advancement of modern day technology and send us the visuals of your gardening problems as a reader Dr Prashant Jain has done. He has sent this accompanying picture of a rose leaf which is insect-eaten. The insect leaves behind the ribs of leaves,eating into the green part. Although we have already told you about the insect but with this accompanying visual,it will be easy this time. The insect is chaffer beetle,responsible for damages in other plants like grapes and guava too. Spray sevin,dissolved at two gram to a litre of water twice in a gap of ten days. Carry out the spraying in the evening hours as the insect appears around that time. Keep sending such photos.

I want to plant roses next October. Please tell me about some red and yellow varieties.
Mukesh Kumar,Chandigarh
The red roses are John F. Kennedy,Christion Dior,Dr B.P. Pal,Happiness,Kajal etc and yellow are Yellow Giant,Buccaneer and Lemon Yellow.

What quantity of fertilizer I should add to my mango and which fertilizer or manure?
Beant Singh,Chandigarh
This is not the time to add any manure or fertilizer to mango. So wait till the period from December to February.

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How can I multiply motia? How long will it take to make an independent plant?
Rajni,Panchkula
You can multiply motia by gooti (air layering) or mound layering method. Just remove an inch of outer skin and cover it with wet moss wrapped in polythene sheet. Or else,cover this exposed part with mud that is kept moist. You can do it by dragging the branch to soil and putting some pressure,like a brick on it. The plant will take about a month to give roots.

What is the name of the chemical that I can use to cover cut ends?
Sangeeta,Panchkula
Blitox,make a slurry of the powder and apply it at the cut ends.

For gardening queries ASK DR GREEN at satishnarula@pau.edu