Farmer's friendly technique of raising mat type healthy seedling in cold environment

High mortality and slow growth of seedling generally occurred in tray due to cold, foggy weather and severe seedling blight. Mechanical transplanting is hampered, farmers having economic loss. A sustainable method for raising mat type seedling is necessary. Experiments were conducted on disease control and seedling growth in dry seasons. Fungicides treated/untreated seeds were sown 120-130g in each tray containing pulverized fine grain loam/sandy loam soils. Seed covered with a thin layer of soil and irrigated. It was polythene covered (PC) for 72h and then every night along with 2/3 sprinkler irrigation (SI) per day. Untreated seedlings infected 53-93%. Pyraclostrobin, Azoxystrobin and Azoxystrobin+Difeconazole treated seeds/sprayed (72h) seedlings had no disease. Seedling height was 11.7-13.2 cm with compact and thick root mat at 25 days. Seeds treated at 0.2-0.3% (18-20h) showed no disease but severely in untreated seeds in all locations. Seedling height (13.8 cm), leaf age (3.7) and root number (8.5) were better when NPK were applied at 3-4-3 g/tray. Spraying of urea (1%) in addition with MOP, theovit and $ZnSo_4$ at 0.6-0.6-0.2% on 7 and $15^{th}$ days was also effective. PC showed significant growth (29.1-34.5%). Root mat was not good in flooded irrigation (FI). Disease was higher in SI (66.7-97.3%) than FI (0.7-3.7%) in untreated seeds regardless of polythene use. The protocol would be effective for raising mat type seedling in cold environment.