Effect of plant extracts on early blight of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Abstract

Early blight is one of the most common and distressing disease of potato plant which is caused by fungus, Alternaria solani. The antifungal activity of five plant extracts namely Azadirachta indica, Allium sativum, Lantana camera, Ocimum sanctum, and Eucalyptus globolus at 5% concentration and mancozeb 0.2% concentration as a treated check, was tested for management of Alternaria solani in vivo. In field experiments, the highest reduction of disease severity was achieved by applying the extracts of Eucalyptus globolus and Ocimum sanctum, at 5% concentration (20.83 and 25.37) as compared to mancozeb (treated check) at 0.2% concentration (14.79), and T0-Control(treated check) (44.32). All treatments singnificantly reduced the early bilght disease severity as well as increased the plant height and yield of potato compared to the infected control under field conditions.