Management of guava wilt in tarai regions of Uttarakhand

Abstract

In guava plant, wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. Psidii is the most destructive disease in India and losses due to this disease are substantial. Therefore, the present communication, deals with the management of guava wilt in Tarai regions of Uttarakhand. Among the four fungicides bioassayed in vitro, Propiconazole + Carbendazim and Carbendazim at 75 and 100 µg ml-1 and Carbendazim + Mancozeb at 100 µg ml-1, respectively, were most effective in inhibiting the mycelial growth (100%) followed by Carbendazim + Mancozeb causing 85 per cent mycelia growth at 75 µg ml-1, while Propiconazole was comparatively found less effective at all the concentrations. Under field conditions Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (10kg/l) as an individual treatment showed the best management of guava wilt (96.9% reduction over check) followed by Pant bioagent-3 (10kg/l) (94.9% reduction over check) and compost tea ( 1kg/l) (94.6% reduction over check). In combination treatments, systemic fungicides Propiconazole + Carbendazim (2g/l) found to be the best management against guava wilt (98.4%). So it is recommended to apply an integrated approach by using antagonists, bioagents, bioagent consortium and fungicides and their combinations to manage the wilt disease of guava.