Effect of TNAU-Pf1 seed biopriming and foliar spray of newer fungicides on the incidence of leaf blight of sunflower

Abstract

Seed biopriming followed by foliar spray of different newer fungicide molecules to manage sunflower leaf spot under field conditions have been tried in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India for three consecutive years (2014)(2015)(2016). The result indicated that among the different treatments tested, seed biopriming with TNAU Pseudomonas fluorescens (Pf1) @ 10g/kg seeds followed by spray of Hexaconazole @ 0.1% at 45 days and P. fluorescens (Pf1) @ 1.0% at 60 DAS showed less severity of Alternaria leaf spot (25.7) with the highest yield of 1471kg/ha against the control (47.7) which recorded yield of 1111kg/ha. In addition, seed biopriming promoted higher and uniform seed germination under field conditions.