Management of early blight of potato caused by Alternaria solani experiment was conducted under in- vitro and in- vivo conditions at College of Horticulture, Bengaluru, and Horticulture Reasearch and Extenstion Centre, Hassan. The contact fungicides such as mancozeb-75% WP, zineb-75% WP, chlorothalonil-75% WP and systemic fungicides like hexaconazole- 5% EC, difenconazole-25% EC, tebuconazole- 25% EC were used at the concentration of 100, 250, 500 and 1000 ppm. Besides combi-products like carbendazim- 25% + mancozeb- 50% WS, tricyclazole-18% + mancozeb-62% WS, captan-70% + hexaconazole-5% WP and zineb- 78% + hexaconazole-4% were used at 500, 1000 and 1500 ppm, respectively along with a control. The same fungicides were taken for the field evaluation at recommended dose of concentrations. The results revealed that under in- vitro evaluation fungicides such as hexaconazole-5% EC, tebuconazole-25% EC, difenoconazole-25% EC, zineb-68% + hexaconazole-4% WP and captan-68% + hexaconazole-5% WP were found to be equally effective and significantly superior with 100 per cent inhibition at all the concentrations, which were on par with mancozeb (100 %) inhibition at 1000 ppm concentrations. At field evaluation, the best treatment was found that zineb-68% + hexaconazole-4% WP fungicide with least per cent disease index (PDI) of 15.11 followed by hexaconazole 5% EC (17.55%) at 65 days after planting.

Management, Early blight, In- vitro, In- vivo, Fungicides, Evaluation

Among ten different fungicides tested under in-vitro, hexaconazole-5% EC, tebuconazole-25% EC, difenoconazole-25% EC, zineb-68% + hexaconazole-4% WP and captan-68% + hexaconazole-5% WP were found equally effective and significantly superior at all the concentrations with 100 per cent inhibition, which were on par with mancozeb-75% WP with inhibition (100%) at 1000 ppm concentration. At field evaluation, best fungicides were found that zineb-68% + hexaconazole-4% WP with record of least per cent disease index of (15.11%) followed by hexaconazole-5% EC (17.55%), which was on par with tebuconazole-25% EC (18.58) and difenoconazole-25% EC (18.96 t/ha) at 65 DAP. Whereas, highest tuber yield (18.88 t/ha) was found in zineb-68% + hexaconazole-4% WP, which was on par with hexaconazole-5% EC (17.85 t/ha) and difenoconazole-25% EC (16.66 t/ha), tebuconazole-25% EC (16.00 t/ha), captan-70% + hexaconazole-5% WP (15.54 t/ha). Hence these fungicides can be recommended to the farmers for the effective management of early blight disease on commercial cultivation of potato.

Prasad P.S., Manjamma D., Sadanand K. Mushrif, Anjaneya Reddy B., H. Amarananjundeswara, Manjunath Hubballi and Mohan Kumar S. (2023). Management of Early Blight of Potato by using Newer Fungicides. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(12): 236-241.