In vitro efficacy of fungicides against Alternaria solani, the incitant of early blight of tomato

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important and widely grown vegetable crop after potato, it is infected by number of diseases throughout their growing season. Among these diseases, early blight caused by Alternaria solani is the most destructive and threatening in all over the world, causing yield losses up to 80 percent resulting in a drastic reduction in the quantity and quality of fruit yield of tomato. In the present study, four non systemic fungicides at 0.1, 0.2 and 0.25 percent, six systemic fungicides at 0.025, 0.05 and 0.1 percent and ten combi product fungicides at 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 percent concentration were tested in vitro against Alternaria solani by following poisoned food technique. Mancozeb 75% WP, difenoconazole 25% EC and (azoxystrobin 18.2% + difenoconazole 11.4%) 29.6% SC, among non-systemic, systemic and combi product fungicides, respectively inhibited maximum mycelial growth of the fungus and inhibition of mycelial growth was increased with increase in concentrations in all the tested fungicides.