Himachal Journal of Agricultural Research

Priya Bhargava ¹, S.K. Rana ¹, Sachin Upmanyu ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur-176 062, IN

Abstract

Flag smut of wheat caused by Urocystis agropyri (Preuss) A.A. Fisch. Waldh. is an important seed as well as soil borne disease that is now emerging as a serious problem in Himachal Pradesh. During the survey of wheat growing areas of Himachal Pradesh, the highest average incidence of disease (17.77 %) was recorded from Thural of district Kangra followed by Akrot of district Una, Bhager of district Bilaspur and Dhaulakuan of district Sirmour with 14.65, 10.56 and 9.19 per cent incidence, respectively. The overall average disease incidence was significantly higher in 2019-20 (7.12 %) as compared to 2020-21 (5.97 %). The pathogen inoculum buried at 2 cm below the soil surface for 8 months yielded highest spore germination of 18.92 per cent and no spore germination was recorded till 4 months of storage due to the dormancy in any of the screened storage conditions.

Keywords

Flag smut, Urocystis agropyri, disease incidence and survival of inoculum

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Pooja Kapoor ¹, S.K. Rana ¹, Sachin Upmanyu ¹, Shabnam Katoch ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur-176 062, IN

Abstract

Sheath blight of rice, caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn (Teleomorph: Thanatephorus cucumeris (Frank) Donk) is one of the important rice diseases after rice blast and is known to cause yield losses up to the extent of 1.2-69.0 per cent. For an effective management of sheath blight, different disease management approaches could be opted but the use of resistant varieties is considered as the most reliable one. Considering the importance of crop and extent of damage, a set of 50 rice germplasm lines was screened against sheath blight of rice, out of which 14 lines showed resistant reaction and 16 lines exhibited moderately resistant reaction, respectively. Rest 20 lines showed moderately susceptible and susceptible reaction. Rice germplasm lines identified in this study could be brought into rice breeding programmes after field validation.

Keywords

Germplasm, resistance, management, sheath blight

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Gurpreet Kaur ¹, S.K. Rana ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur-176 062,, IN

Abstract

Fusarium head blight (FHB), is a serious disease causing significant reduction in yield and quality of wheat grains throughout the world. An in vitro experiment was conducted to find out the suitable temperature and pH for the growth and sporulation of Fusarium graminearum, the main causal agent of FHB. The results showed 6 that the maximum growth of the fungus (90.00 mm), highest sporulation of 5.5×10 conidia per ml and perithecia formation occurred at 25ºC. A pH of 5 resulted in the maximum growth (86.00 mm) of the fungus, 6 highest sporulation (5.7×10 conidia/ ml) and perithecia formation. The studies on the effect of weather variables viz., temperature, relative humidity and rainfall on the development of FHB in wheat crop sown at st th st three different dates i.e. 31 October, 15 November and 1 December during Rabiseason of 2019-20 and 2020- 21 revealed that all the weather parameters contributed positively in the development of the disease and the disease severity was highest on late sown crop during both the cropping years.

Keywords

Wheat, Fusarium graminearum, temperature, pH, weather.

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