Disease
Wilt
Signs · Plants turn yellow, droop and dry in patches; roots look brown inside.
Manage · Grow tolerant varieties, treat seed with fungicide and Trichoderma, avoid early sowing in warm soil and rotate crops.
All crops
Pulse · Fabaceae (pea family)
Lentil
Masoor · मसूर · Lens culinaris
Small seed, big protein — a hardy pulse for low-input fields.
Lentil is a hardy, short pulse that grows on stored moisture and fixes its own nitrogen. In Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh it is often broadcast into standing paddy just before rice harvest (utera or paira cropping), using leftover moisture.
- Sowing
- 20 Oct – 15 Nov
- Harvest
- 15 Mar – 10 Apr
- Duration
- 115–135 days
- Yield
- 6.1–8.1 q/acre
- 15–20 q/ha
Flowering · roots shown through the soil
At a glance
Lentil in one look
Cool weather suits it. Frost at flowering damages flowers and humid weather favours blight.
Sowing time
20 Oct – 15 Nov
Harvest
15 Mar – 10 Apr
115–135 days from sowing
Temperature
15–25 °C to grow
18–25 °C at sowing
Soil
Loam to clay loam, well drained; grows on rice fallows
pH 6–8
Seed rate
16–24 kg/acre
40–60 kg/ha
Spacing
22.5 cm rows
3–5 cm deep
Irrigations
1–2
2 critical stages
Yield
6.1–8.1 q/acre
15–20 q/ha
Season
AugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJun
Grown most inUttar PradeshMadhya PradeshBiharRajasthanUttarakhandPunjab
Avoid waterlogged and saline soils. Tolerates mild alkalinity.
Seed to harvest
Watch lentil grow, stage by stage
Scroll through the season. The plant in the glass tank grows to each stage — roots and all — and every card says what the crop is doing and what you should do in the field that week.
Stage 1 of 7
Sowing
Day 0–5
- 1Day 0–5
Sowing
Small lens-shaped seeds absorb moisture and swell.
Your job · Sow treated, Rhizobium-coated seed shallow in moist soil.
- 2Day 6–12
Germination
Root goes down and a thin shoot comes up; seed halves stay in the soil.
Your job · Check the stand.
- 3Day 13–30
Seedling
Tiny leaflets open; nodules start forming on roots.
Your job · First hoeing at 25–30 days.
- 4Day 31–60
Branching
Thin branches spread and the plant becomes bushy.
Your job · Light irrigation at branching if dry. Second hoeing at 45–50 days.
- 5Day 61–85
Flowering
Small pale violet-white flowers appear.
Your job · Watch for rust and blight in humid weather.
- 6Day 86–110
Pod filling
Small flat pods form, each with one or two seeds.
Your job · Check for pod borer; light irrigation at pod formation if very dry.
- 7Day 111–130
Maturity
Plants and pods turn yellowish-brown and dry.
Your job · Harvest in the morning to reduce shattering.
The seed
Good seed is half the harvest
Use certified seed of a variety bred for your region, at the right rate, and treat it before sowing.
One seed
≈ 4.5 mm
Seed rate
16–24 kg/acre
40–60 kg/ha
1000-seed weight
—
Recommended varieties
LL 931PAU small-seeded variety for Punjab.
IPL 316IIPR variety with good yield and rust resistance, for the north-eastern plains.
IPL 220IIPR biofortified variety rich in iron and zinc.
Pant L 8GBPUAT, Pantnagar variety for Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
L 4076IARI variety for the north-western plains.
Seed treatment
- 1Treat seed with a fungicide or Trichoderma against wilt, as per label / your KVK.
- 2Then coat with Rhizobium and PSB culture just before sowing.
Field & sowing
Prepare the land, then sow at the right gap and depth
Line sowing with a drill; broadcast as utera in standing rice
Layout
Flat beds
Row to row
22.5 cm
Plant to plant
—
Depth
3–5 cm
Land preparation
- 1One ploughing followed by two harrowings and planking for a fine seedbed.
- 2Ensure drainage channels — lentil dies in standing water.
- 3For utera, no land preparation is needed.
Sowing, step by step
- 1Sow in moist soil in rows 22.5–25 cm apart with a drill.
- 2Keep seed shallow, 3–5 cm, as lentil seed is small.
- 3Use 40–45 kg/ha for small seed and 50–60 kg/ha for bold seed or late sowing.
- 4For utera, broadcast 60–80 kg/ha into standing paddy 7–10 days before rice harvest while the soil is moist.
Feeding the crop
How much fertiliser, and when
These are the standard doses for a medium-fertility field. Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower them — test first, then feed.
Nutrient dose
Nitrogen (N)8.1 kg/acre · 20 kg/ha
Phosphorus (P₂O₅)16 kg/acre · 40 kg/ha
Potassium (K₂O)8.1 kg/acre · 20 kg/ha
Plus 5 t/ha (2 t/acre) of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost.
When to apply
- 1Apply all fertiliser at sowing, drilled below the seed.
- 2Only a small starter nitrogen dose is needed — nodules do the rest.
Micronutrients, sulphur & biofertilisers
- 1Rhizobium and PSB seed treatment.
- 2Apply 20 kg/ha sulphur on sulphur-poor soils.
- 3On calcareous soils of Bihar, lentil often needs boron — apply as advised by your KVK.
Bags for your field
For 1 acre of Lentil
What to buy
Urea
3.8
kg
DAP
0.5
bags · 35 kg
MOP
0.5
bags · 13 kg
Nutrients in it: N 8.1 kg · P₂O₅ 16 kg · K₂O 8.1 kg
Also add farmyard manure or compost: 2 t
- Don't put it all in at once: follow the timing on the Lentil page.
- Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower these amounts. If you have one, follow it.
- Using SSP, NPK complexes or gypsum instead changes these amounts; the nutrient dose is what matters.
Not yet checked against a package of practices. Confirm the dose with your KVK before you buy.
Urea has 46 % N; DAP 18 % N and 46 % P₂O₅; MOP 60 % K₂O. Urea comes in 45 kg bags, DAP and MOP in 50 kg.
Water
1–2 irrigations — never miss the critical ones
A crop forgives a late irrigation at some stages and punishes it at others. These are the days that decide yield.
Day 45
Day 75
SowingDay 135
Critical irrigations
- Day 45Branching
- Day 75Pod formation
Watering tips
- 1One light irrigation at branching is often enough.
- 2Avoid heavy irrigation and standing water — it causes wilt and root rot.
Protection
Weeds, pests and diseases to watch for
Walk the field every week. Most problems are cheap to stop early and expensive to fix late. For any spray, follow the label dose and check with your KVK.
Disease
Rust
Signs · Yellow-orange then dark brown powdery spots on leaves and stems in January–February; plants dry early.
Manage · Grow resistant varieties such as IPL 316. Spray a recommended fungicide like mancozeb at first sign, as per label / your KVK.
Disease
Stemphylium blight
Signs · Small brown spots on leaflets that spread quickly in humid weather; leaves fall and plants look burnt. Common in Bihar.
Manage · Timely sowing, balanced fertiliser and a recommended fungicide when it first appears, as per label / your KVK.
Pest
Aphids
Signs · Colonies on shoot tips and pods; tips curl and dry.
Manage · Natural enemies usually control them; spray a recommended insecticide only if colonies are heavy, as per label / your KVK.
Pest
Pod borer
Signs · Caterpillars bore into pods and eat the seeds.
Manage · Pheromone traps and bird perches; spray a recommended insecticide only when the pest is above the threshold, as per label / your KVK.
Disorder
Waterlogging damage
Signs · After heavy rain or irrigation, plants yellow and die in low spots.
Manage · Level the field, make drainage channels and irrigate lightly.
Weeds
Common · Bathua, krishna neel, senji, chatri matri, wild pea
- 1Hoe at 25–30 and 45–50 days after sowing.
- 2Pendimethalin as a pre-emergence spray right after sowing, as per label / your KVK.
Harvest
Harvest on time, dry it well, store it safe
A good crop gives
6.1–8.1q/acre
15–20 quintal per hectare
Dry plant residue (bhusa) is good cattle feed.
When is it ready?
- 1Leaves dry and fall; pods turn brown.
- 2Seeds rattle in the pods.
Harvesting
- 1Cut or pull plants early in the morning when pods are less likely to burst.
- 2Dry in the sun and thresh by beating or with a thresher.
After harvest & storage
- 1Dry seed to 9–10 % moisture.
- 2Store in airtight bins to protect from pulse beetle.
Golden rules for lentil
- 1Seed treatment and Rhizobium culture are the cheapest yield boosters.
- 2Use utera sowing in rice fields that stay moist after harvest.
- 3Keep irrigation light — lentil dislikes wet feet.
- 4Grow rust-resistant varieties in the eastern plains.