Studies on Management of Black Scurf (Rhizoctonia Solani Kuhn.) of Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.)

Abstract

Potato (Solarium tuberosum L.,) is the most important staple food crop in the world. Its ranking 3rd in terms of total production with over 365 million tonnes/year after rice and wheat. India is the 2nd place after China produced 52588.98 thousand metric tons potato. In India, among all the states Uttar Pradesh stands first with the production of 15812.62 thousand metric tonnes followed by West Bengal with the production of 12782.00 thousand metric tons in the year 2018-19. Potato is infected by a number of soil and tuber borne diseases and pest. Among all, black scurf (Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn.) is destructive disease of potato. The most common phase of this disease is formation of sclerotial masses on the tuber resulting in black scurf which considerably reduces market value of edible tubers. In present investigation different bioagents and chemicals was tested for management of disease in vitro and field condition. Among the bioagents, maximum inhibition per cent (67.78%) of pathogen was recorded with Chaetomium globosum, followed by Bacillus subtilis (63.33%). Among fungicides, the complete mycelial growth inhibition (100%) of R. solani was recorded in Boric acid @ 3 % followed by Mencozeb (77.78%) and Monceren (77.03%) @ (0.2%) concentration. In field experiment the result reveled that the minimum disease incidence percent was recorded (12.00%) in Mancozeb @ 0.25% foliar spray compared to untreated check 60.00% and minimum disease severity (18.96%) and maximum yield 275.00 q/ha was recorded in Boric acid @ 3% tuber treatment compared to untreated control.