Evaluation of entomopathogenic fungi against cardamom thrips (Sciothrips cardamomi) under field condition

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of different Bio-agents against Thrips (Sciothrips cardamom) infesting on Small cardamom during 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. The observations of thrips were recorded from randomly selected 100 plants and from each plant were observed. A three-year old cardamom block was selected for the study. Treatment application was carried out in randomized complete block design with three replicates and the number of plants per plot was four. Initial application of treatments was done in January 2021 to 2023 and nine rounds of treatment applications were carried out at monthly intervals. Pods were harvested at maturity and yield data were recorded. Numbers of damaged and undamaged pods were recorded at each harvest by obtaining a sample from each bush. Yield and percentage of damaged pods were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Percentage data were transformed to inverse sine before analyses were carried out.