Assortment for host resistance and eco-friendly management of mulberry powdery mildew caused by Phyllactinia corylea (Pers.) Karst

Abstract

Powdery mildew caused by Phyllactinia corylea (Pers.) Karst, is an obligate parasitic disease of mulberry inflicting considerable qualitative as well as quantitative losses of leaf yield. Screening of 16 mulberry varieties against powdery mildew disease under field conditions yielded two resistant varieties with the lower powdery mildew disease severity of 2.5 and 5.42 per cent in a variety S-13 and in variety S-34 had 3 and 5.37 per cent after 55 and 70 days after planting respectively. The three varieties viz., Kanva-2 / M-5, Mysore local and S-1635 were moderately resistant with the less DS values of 11.43, 11.47 and 11.48 per cent respectively. In management studies, the plant extracts at all concentrations tested were effective in suppressing the disease and at higher concentration of 15%, Zinger officinale reduced the disease to 60.31 per cent and Lantana camara to 59.04 per cent disease over control and were considered as best for managing powdery mildew disease in mulberry. Among the culture filtrate of different bioagents tested, the Trichoderma harzianum reduced the disease to 51.56 per cent and Pseudomonas fluorescens to 51.09 per cent over control at 15% concentration and were shown to be potent in fading away the disease.