Influence of sowing dates and fungicides sprays on incidence of powdery mildew of cowpea incited by erysiphe polygoni (DC)

Abstract

Adjustment of sowing dates along with fungicide sprays is an obviously good strategy to minimize the diseases and obtained better yield. Therefore, the present work was carried out to study the effect of sowing dates along with fungicides spray on incidence of powdery mildew of cowpea incited by Erysiphe polygoni during the year 2012-13 and 2013-14. The cowpea variety Konkan sadabahar was sown at three different dates and sprayed with seven different fungicides against powdery mildew disease. The results indicated that the subsequent delay in sowing caused progressive increase in the powdery mildew intensity. The mean disease intensity was found minimum in crop sown on 15th Nov. (23.32%) followed by 1st Dec. (24.73%) and 15th Dec. (26.20%). In case of fungicidal treatments out of seven fungicides tested, Hexaconazole (0.05%) was found to be most superior with 18.18 per cent disease reduction followed by Triademefon (0.1%), Karathane (0.2%), Wettable sulphur (0.2%) and Carbendazim (0.1%) with 19.33, 20.44, 21.91 and 22.67 per cent reduction in disease over control, respectively.