Organic Mulberry Leaf Production for Silkworm Rearing in North Western Subtropical Region.

Sulochana; Pandey, R. K.; Dhar, Anil; Mohan, Rajat

The consumption of mulberry leaf is rising among silkworm rearers in sub tropical sub Himalayan States due to rising trend in silk cocoon price. However, shortage of mulberry leaves is experienced, because the rearers mainly depend on old mulberry trees found scattered in the region. In the present work, mulberry trees were grown without use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Effect of spray of different doses of vermicompost extract along with its soil application on mulberry foliage was compared with spray of zinc sulfate as well as with soil application of NPK and FYM. Various parameters, such as leaf yield, leaf moisture, moisture retention capacity of leaves, leaf protein and carbohydrates were compared after different treatments. Silkworms were also reared on variously treated leaves and cocoon quality assessed. The leaf yield per tree increased upto 8.328 kg after spray of 1 kg per liter vermicompost along with soil application of 3 kg per tree vermicompost (T2) from 5.758 kg by soil application of NPK and FYM (T1). The moisture retention capacity increased upto 2.25% in T2 from control (T1). Larval weight of 10 mature larva increased upto 55 gram by spray of vermicompost solution T2, T3 and T4 from 52 gram in T1 (control). Leaf protein content varied between 40 and 21 mg per gm dry weight. The carbohydrates in leaf varied between 217 and 374 mg per gm dry weight. The cocoon yield per 100 Dfls was found to vary between 79 and 81 kg. The male shell ration varied between 20 and 22%. The filament length was found to vary between 937 and 1048 m, whereas the differences were not significant in the denier of silk filament between the treatments. The result indicated that 1-3% spray of vermicompost extract and soil application (3 kg) per tree enhanced mulberry leaf quality and improved bivoltine silk cocoon quality.

PESTICIDES; SILKWORMS; MULBERRY; COCOONS; SOILS

Research Journal of Agricultural Science, 2013, Vol 4, p628

2066-1843

Academic Journal