Evaluation of reflective silver plastic mulch on controlling whitefly and associated disease incidence on tomato crop

Abstract

The present study was conducted to study the effect of reflective silver plastic mulch in reducing whitefly population and virus disease on tomato. The experiment was conducted at Vegetable Research Centre (VRC), G. B. Pant University of Agriculture during 2018-19. The result revealed that the reflective silver plastic mulch had significantly lowered the numbers of whitefly eggs (ranged 0.60-2.60/cm2 leaf), nymphs (ranged 0.00-2.20/cm2 leaf), and adults (ranged 0.40-3.20/ 3 leaves) as compared to the control 1.80- 8.20 egg/cm2 leaf, 0.80-6.60 nymph/cm2 leaf and 1.40-6.40 adults/ 3 leaves. The mulch can be successfully used in reducing the disease incidence in the crop. Results from the present investigation suggests that reflective silver mulch help in suppression of whitefly population which leads to reducing the associated disease incidence of tomato which ultimately increase the yield of tomato.