Assessing the relative efficacy of antagonists, organic amendments and chemical means in managing black scurf disease in potato crop

Abstract

Rhizoctonia solani (teleomorph: Thanatephorus cucumeris) causing black scurf disease is a ubiquitous fungus that attacks tubers, underground stems and stolons of potato. In potato, qualitative losses mainly occur through the production of misshapen tubers and the development of sclerotia on the tuber surface. Disease management can be achieved through the use of antagonists, organic amendments and by chemical controls. The infected tubers were planted in the field after dipping in the solutions of MEMC-6 w/v (0.1%), Monceren 250 EC (0.1%) and T. harzianum & T. viride (106 conidia/ml suspension) for 10-15 minute. Vermicompost and Neem cake (20 g/kg soil) were applied as soil application at 20 days before planting. Among fungicides treated tuber, monceren showed highest reduction in disease upto 98.58% over the control with the lowest disease incidence (1.0%,). Tuber treated with bioagent T. harzianum showed reduction in disease (65.09%) over the control with 24.67% disease incidence. Among the organic amendments, vermicompost controlled disease up to 48.11 percentwith 36.67% disease incidence based on mean of two years.