Seasonal Incidence of Shoot and Fruit Borer, Earias spp. on Okra in Relation to Weather Parameters

A field experiment was carried out on seasonal abundance of shoot &fruit borer, Earias spp. on okra crop in relation to weather factors on variety Kashi Kranti was conceded at Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture SKRAU, Bikaner during Zaid, 2022 and 2023. Initially, the shoot damage was low, after that the damage increased gradually from 10th SMW & reached to its maximum in 14th SMW (1st week of April) during Zaid 2022 and 2023. The correlation coefficient between minimum temperature and shoot damage exhibited significant negative correlation (r= -0.647) during 2022. However, both maximum & minimum temperature presented a significant negative influences (r= -0.638 and -0.648) with shoot damage during 2023. Whereas, average relative humidity and rainfall (r= 0.579 and 0.559) presented a significant positive correlation with shoot damage during 2023 respectively. The start of fruit damage started in the 13th SMW (last week of March) on both number & weight basis during 2022 and 2023, and reached to its maximum in the 19th SMW (second week of May) during both the year of study. It was observed that maximum temperature (r= 0.801, 0.788 and 0.811, 0.800) & minimum temperature (r= 0.924, 0.931 and 0.954, 0.949) had significant positive correlation on % fruit damage of okra on number & weight basis during 2022 and 2023 respectively. However, mean relative humidity (r= -0.854, -0.628 and -0.846, -0.625) had significant negative correlation with % fruit damage both on number & weight basis during 2022 and 2023 respectively.