Prevalence of banded leaf and sheath blight of maize in Punjab and its management with fungicides Kumar Sanjay1, Kaur Harleen2* 1Department of Plant Pathology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab 2Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab *Corresponding author: harleenkaur@pau.edu
Online published on 13 November, 2020. Abstract Extensive disease oriented field surveys were conducted to record incidence and severity of banded leaf and sheath blight of maize in different maize growing districts of Punjab during Kharif seasons of 2015 and 2016. Mean disease occurrence of banded leaf and sheath blight was highest in Hoshiarpur (72.5%) followed by Rupnagar (70.1%) district during both the years. The highest mean disease incidence (11.3%) and severity (7.8%) were also recorded in Hoshiarpur district. Out of eight fungicides screened against Rhizoctonia solani, azoxystrobin 250 g/l +difenoconazole 125 g/l (Amistar Top 325 SC) and trifloxystrobin 25%+tebuconazole 50% (Nativo 75 WG) proved highly effective giving 87.4 and 84.7 per cent inhibition in colony growth respectively at 100 ppm and completely inhibited colony growth at 200 ppm. ED50 value calculated for these fungicides was less than 1 μg/ml. Minimum mean disease severity of 10.40 and 11.14 percent was recorded with 0.05% foliar spray of azoxystrobin 250 g/l +difenoconazole 125 g/l (Amistar Top 325 SC) (10.40%) and trifloxystrobin 25%+tebuconazole 50% (Nativo 75 WG) respectively. Azoxystrobin 250 g/l +difenoconazole 125 g/l (Amistar Top 325 SC) gave maximum mean grain yield of 31.3 q/acre with 80.73 per cent increase in yield over untreated control under field conditions. Top Keywords Banded leaf and sheath blight, Management, Maize, Rhizoctonia solani. Top |