Management of damping off disease of papaya seedlings in nursery
Ram Niwas Singh, SK Thakur, Ashutosh Kumar, Paritosh Kumar, Pallavi Neha and Md. Nadeem Akhtar
Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is an important fruit crop is being threatened by damping off disease of papaya seedlings in the nursery. A number of fungi Pythium ultimum, Phytophthora parasitica, Fusarium solani and Rhizoctonia species can cause damping off disease of papaya seedlings. The chemical control of these fungal pathogens is not effective throughout the growth of plants. Moreover, use of chemicals to control the disease is also criticized due to its detrimental effects on the environment and besides this, the pathogens became resistant to the common chemical fungicides used against them. Keeping all these things in the mind, a trial was formulated to find out the best alternative to control damping off disease of papaya seedlings. Six treatments, each in four replications were considered during the course of trial in summer 2016-17 and 2017-18 at farmers’ field by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sheohar under DRPCAU, Pusa. The efficacy of fungicides Carbendazim-50% wp, Copper oxychloride-50%wp, Mancozeb (64%) + Metalaxyl (8%) and Trichoderma viride either alone or in their different combinations was evaluated for the management of damping off disease of papaya seedlings in nursery stage. The results revealed that seed treatment with 0.1% solution of Carbendazim-50% wp for eight hours and basal drenching by Mancozeb (64%) + Metalaxyl (8%) @ 0.25% along with two times additional soil drenching with Mancozeb (64%) + Metalaxyl (8%) @ 0.25% solution gave maximum percentage of seed germination (98.50%) and reduced percentage of disease incidence upto 1.75% but found statistically similar with seed treatment with Carbendazim-50% wp @ 0.1% solution and basal soil treatment with Trichoderma viride @ 1% solution along with two additional soil drenching with Copper oxychloride 50% wp @ 0.3% solution. The similar trends were also observed in case of root length, seedling height, number of roots and number of leaves per plant. All the treatments were found significantly superior over the check in respect of seed germination, reduced disease incidence, root length, seedling height, number of roots and the number of leaves per plant of papaya seedlings in the nursery.