Management of Wilt Disease (Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc.) in Jasmine With Fungicides

Abstract

Sclerotial wilt of jasmine incited by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc.is a serious problem in jasmine growing districts of TamilNadu and caused complete destruction the plant. .Uses of fungicides are one the most promising management method in controlling the S. rolfsii infection. Hence the present study was conducted with combination of fungicide molecules to manage the disease. Among the tested fungicides, Tebuconazole 50% + Trifloxystrobin 25 % @ 1000ppm was found effective and recorded maximum percent inhibition of 95.3 percent followed by Azoxystrobin 11% + Tebuconazole 18.3% at 1000ppm which recorded 94.11% as compared to control under invitro conditions. The pooled mean field data revealed that among the five treatments tested against wilt disease, soil drenching with Tebuconazole 50% + Trifloxystrobin 25 % at 0.1% at the time of planting + soil application on 30, 60, 90 and 120 days after planting was effective in reducing the wilt incidence to 14.0% with the highest yield of 1312 g/ plant with an estimated yield of 8.4 t/ha with maximum CB ratio of 3.63 as compared to untreated control which recorded 32 %,525 g/ plant , 3.36 t/ha and CB ratio of 1.48 respectively. Jasmine (Jasminum sp.) is one of the most important and popular traditional flowers of India. A large number of species of Jasminum are centered on the regions comprising India, China and Malaysia (Seema et al., 2021). The major Jasmine cultivating districts of Tamil Nadu are Madurai, Dindigul, Salem, Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar and Trichy. Jasmine flowers are native to India, China and Iran (Ganga et al,2015) Jasmine crop is susceptible to many fungal and phytoplasma diseases among these root rot and collar rot disease or sclerotial wilt incited by Sclerotium rolfsiiSacc. (Telomorph: Atheliarolfsii) cause serious losses (30-40 % ) to jasmine plant. It has caused complete destruction of jasmine fields. It has caused complete destruction of the jasmine nurseries in the Thangachimatam, Ramanathapuram district and also affected jasmine main field in Sathyamangalam.Erode district and Madurai district. The pathogen S. rolfsii causes a variety of diseases such as damping off of seedlings, collar rot or stem rot, foot rot, crown rot, Sclerotium wilt and blight (Priyadharcini, et al., 2018).This pathogen is having a wide host rangeand the annual loss to world crops has been estimated at about 30,000 million dollars due to this fungal pathogen S. rolfsii (Chaurasia et al., 2014). Because of its soil-borne nature, vast host range, and sclerotia’s ability to survive for prolonged periods of time under harsh conditions, management of S. rolfsii is extremely challenging. There are various reports in the literature where fungicides have been proven to best control many destructive soil-borne diseases (Hosen et al., 2016). Uses of fungicides are one the most promising management method in controlling the S. rolfsii infection. There are nosubstantial levels of host plant resistance for collar rot in chickpea but the disease can beminimized by fungicides and appropriate crop rotation (Azhar et al., 2006)

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