Fertilizer for Commercial Crops: Sagarika for Cotton, Sugarcane, Jute and Cumin

Cotton, sugarcane, jute and cumin are grown to be sold, not eaten at home. They carry high input costs, a long season and a single harvest that decides the year's income, so a farmer growing them wants every rupee of fertilizer to work. This page explains how Sagarika fits into a commercial crop programme: the dose, the spray schedule and the crop by crop guidance for each of the four crops we cover.

One point is worth making first. Sagarika is a seaweed biostimulant. It is not a fertilizer, and it does not replace the urea, DAP or potash you apply. It works on the plant rather than on the soil, helping the crop take up and use the nutrition you already give it. That is why it is applied alongside your fertilizer, and why the dose below is the same for every crop.

What Is in Sagarika and What It Does for Commercial Crops

Sagarika Liquid is made from two seaweeds: Kappaphycus alvarezii, a red seaweed, and Sargassum wightii, a brown seaweed, used in equal parts. Seaweed extract carries the plant growth regulators auxin, cytokinin and gibberellin along with macro and micronutrients, and the product is registered under the Fertilizer Control Order. Auxin supports root growth, cytokinin supports cell division and gibberellin supports stem and shoot growth.

In a commercial crop, yield is built over a long season and in more than one stage. Cotton has to put on branches, squares, flowers and bolls. Sugarcane has to tiller and then elongate. Jute has to grow tall and fibrous. Cumin has to branch and set seed in a short window. Three sprays spread across the season, each timed to a stage, are meant to support the crop at each of those points.

Sagarika Dose for Commercial Crops

The dose does not change between cotton, sugarcane, jute and cumin. Only the timing changes.

 

At 5.0 ml per litre, 500 ml of Sagarika makes about 100 litres of spray solution, which covers one acre. A 1 litre bottle therefore treats two acres for one spray, and a 5 litre pack treats ten acres for one spray. A full three spray programme on one acre uses 1.5 litres.

Fertilizer for Cash Crops and Fibre Crops: The Sagarika Spray Schedule

Commercial crops get three foliar sprays. The gap between sprays depends on the crop group: 30 to 35 days for fibre crops and 40 to 45 days for cash crops. DAS means days after sowing and DAP in the table below means days after planting.

 

Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at sowing or planting, before the first spray. Time each spray by crop stage as well as by date. If your sowing date is early or late, or the season runs ahead of or behind normal, follow the stage rather than the day count. Cumin is a short crop, so its sprays sit closer together than the 30 to 35 day gap used for cotton and jute.

How to Apply Sagarika on Commercial Crops

1. Fill the sprayer tank about halfway with clean water.

2. Add Sagarika at 5.0 ml per litre of the final volume. For a 15 litre knapsack tank that is 75 ml.

3. Top up with water to the full volume and mix well.

4. Spray in the morning or late afternoon, when it is cool and the wind is low. Cover both sides of the leaves evenly, and avoid spraying just before rain.

5. Mix only what you will spray that day. An acre takes about seven 15 litre tanks.

For seed treatment, mix 2 ml of Sagarika Liquid in 1 litre of water and soak cotton, jute or cumin seed in it before sowing. Sugarcane is planted from setts, and we do not give a sett treatment dose, so on sugarcane use the basal granule and the foliar sprays.

Fertilizer for Commercial Crops, Crop by Crop

The dose is the same for every crop above. What differs is the stage each spray lands on and the way each crop is grown.

Cotton

Cotton is grown across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, mostly as a kharif crop sown with the monsoon. Its yield depends on how many bolls the plant sets and holds. A cotton plant keeps flowering and boll setting over a long period, which is why the spray schedule is spread across the season and not packed into the early weeks.

Sagarika is used on cotton at 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre, in three sprays 30 to 35 days apart. The first spray lands during vegetative growth, the second around flowering and square set, and the third during boll development. Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at sowing and keep your normal nitrogen programme.

For the full cotton guide, see Best fertilizer for cotton.

Sugarcane

Sugarcane is grown mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, with large areas in Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Haryana. It is a long duration crop of ten to eighteen months, planted in more than one season, and it is the heaviest feeder of the four crops here. The crop first puts out tillers and then enters a long grand growth phase in which the stalks elongate and thicken.

Sagarika is used on sugarcane at the same 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre, in three sprays 40 to 45 days apart. The wider gap suits the slower pace of the crop. Start during tillering and carry the second and third sprays into the grand growth phase. Apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at planting. For the full sugarcane guide, see Best fertilizer for sugarcane.

Fertilizer for Jute

Jute is grown for its fibre, mainly in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Odisha, as a warm season crop sown from March to May and harvested in about four months. The value of the crop is in the length and quality of the fibre, which comes from tall, straight and well grown stems. Nitrogen is the main nutrient jute is fed, and the crop is usually grown in wet, humid conditions.

Sagarika is used on jute at 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre, in three sprays 30 to 35 days apart. Make the first spray about a month after sowing, during early vegetative growth, and the second and third sprays during rapid stem growth and the later vegetative stage. Seed can be soaked in Sagarika solution before sowing, and the basal Sagarika Z++ goes on at sowing. Keep your normal nitrogen programme.

Fertilizer for Cumin (Jeera)

Cumin, or jeera, is a rabi spice crop grown mainly in Gujarat and Rajasthan on light, well drained soils, sown in the cool season from October to December. It is a short crop of about four months with a small plant, a single harvest of seed and little tolerance of waterlogging. The crop sets its seed in a narrow window, so the stage of each spray matters more than the date.

Sagarika is used on cumin at 500 ml per acre, mixed at 5.0 ml per litre. Time the three sprays to vegetative growth and branching, to flowering, and to seed setting. Because the crop is short, the sprays sit closer together than on cotton or jute, and the second and third should be timed to the stage and not to the dates in the schedule. Soak the seed in Sagarika solution before sowing, apply the basal Sagarika Z++ at sowing, and keep your normal nitrogen, phosphorus and potash programme.

Using Sagarika Alongside Your NPK Programme

Your base fertilizer programme stays as it is. Apply nitrogen in splits and phosphorus and potash as your soil test advises, and add Sagarika on top.

Sagarika improves how efficiently the crop uses the nutrition you apply, which is a different job from supplying that nutrition. It is not a substitute for NPK. If you want to reduce fertilizer, test the change on part of the field first and take advice from your agronomist.

Sagarika Products for Commercial Crops

 

Most farmers use the granule as a basal dose at sowing or planting and the liquid for the sprays through the season. The two do different jobs and are used together.

Where to Buy Sagarika for Commercial Crops

Buy Sagarika Liquid in 500 ml, 1 litre and 5 litre packs at shop.sagarika.com .

More Sagarika Crop Guides

See the dose and spray calendar for every crop group on the Sagarika crop guide  [/for-crops], including field crops  [/fertilizer-for-field-crops] such as rice and wheat. For the complete dose across all three application methods, see how to use Sagarika.