Assessing fungicides for seedling protection of cucumber to collar rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii

Abstract

Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. is known to be a serious pathogen on many crops of economic importance including cucurbits. Due to proliferic growth and ability to forming sclerotia, this pathogen is the major constraint in successful cultivation of cucumber. The present investigation was thus carried out to evaluate the potential of nine different fungicides i.e. carbendazim, thiophenate methyl, vinclozoline, captan, copper oxychloride, mancozeb, hexaconazole, mycobutanil and propiconazole at different concentrations of 10, 50, 100 and 150 ppm, on the growth inhibition of S. rolfsii. The primary assessment was made on in vitro screening of fungicides and its concentration whereby hexaconazole at lowest concentration (10 ppm) rendered the most vital effect (P<0.0001) on growth reduction ability followed by propiconazole and mycobutanil. No growth of S. rolfsii observed on plates amended with hexaconazole when the concentration was further increased. Similar effect was traced in an experiment conducted on root trainer. The percent infected plant also provided the same impact of fungicides received in toxic-assay experiment. Maximum seedlings protection of cucumber was achieved through seed application of hexaconazole even at lowest concentration (P<0.01); similarly, no mortality was detected on higher concentration of this fungicide. Although our result directly claiming the best effect of hexaconazole but we propose to use a combination of fungicides from different groups in order to avoid resistance development in S. rolfsii against a particular fungicide. A combination of carbendazim and hexaconazole is hereby proposed for seedling protection of cucumber to S. rolfsii.How to view point the article : Kumar, Ritesh, Ghatak, Abhijeet and Bhagat, Arun P. (2018). Assessing fungicides for seedling protection of cucumber to collar rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii. Internat. J. Plant Protec., 11(1) : 10-17,

First occurrence of Sclerotium rolfsii associated with collar and root rot disease of faba bean and its in vitro chemical control

“…Among the fungicides Score (difenoconazole) Amister Top (azoxystrobin + difenoconazole) showed su cient e cacy against S. rolfsii at the dose of 25 ppm whereas Provax (Carboxin + Thiram) showed at e cacy at 10 ppm. Fungicidal potentials of difenoconazole, azoxystrobin, carboxin and thiram have been reported against S. rolfsii in previous studies (Kumar et al 2018;Khatri et al 2017;Grichar et al 2000). Several azole group fungicides including Prothioconazole, difenoconaole have been shown to moderately effective against S. rolfsii (Augusto and Brenneman 2012; Dwivedi and Prasad 2016).…”

“…Treatment of plants and seed with fungicides is one of the key management strategies to manage the disease. Both systemic and nonsystemic fungicides in the group of triazole, strobilurin and dithiocarbamates have shown potential against S. rolfsii (Grichar et al 2000;Khatri et al 2017;Kumar et al 2018). As the pathogen overwinter in or under the soil and plant debris, therefore it is often di cult to destroy all the inoculum by fungicides application.…”

Genome-wide identification and molecular characterization of CRK gene family in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under cold stress and sclerotium rolfsii infection

“…However, the production of cucumber is severely challenged by several pathogens, such as powdery mildew, downy mildew, anthracnose, collar rot, and so on. Among them, cucumber collar rot caused by the fungal pathogen Sclerotium rolfsii is a serious disease that causes wilting and rotting of stems, occasionally fruits, resulting in severe crop damage [ 14 , 15 ]. At present, early detection and application of fungicides are the best methods of controlling S. rolfsii in cucumbers.…”