Tomato wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici is most important and destructive disease of tomato in Maharashtra, which causes considerable losses in yield of tomato. Therefore, present studies were undertaken to test the efficacy of eight fungicides and six bioagents in vitro and ten varieties of tomato in green house against Fusarium wilt of tomato Among the eight fungicides, Mancozeb + Carbendazim (0.125 + 0.05 %) had completely checked the growth of pathogen which inhibited 100 per cent growth of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.

during 2014 to 2015 to control Colletotrichum truncatum causing anthracnose or pod blight of soybean with fungicides and bioagents. All the fungicides and bioagents evaluated in vitro were found effective against C. truncatum and recorded significant inhibition of the test pathogen over untreated control. However, carbendazim was found most effective and recorded 0.66 mm mean colony diameter and significantly highest growth inhibition (99.26%) of the test pathogen. This was followed by mancozeb (98.88%), hexaconazole (84.44%), chlorothalonil (80.00%), propiconazole (78.15%) and difenconazole (32.22%). Out of the six bioagents evaluated in vitro T. viride and T. harzianum recorded significantly highest growth inhibition (78.88%) followed by T. hamatum (77.04%), yeast (40.37%), P. fluorescens (27.77%) and mehandi leaf extract (17.77%). In vitro physiological study of pathogen shows that C. truncatum grew well at 27 0 C temperature with 75 per cent relative humidity.

:The leaf spot of chilli is important and destructive disease in chilli growing areas of Maharashtra, which is caused by Alternaria alternata. Therefore studies were undertaken at PGI, MPKV, Rahuri during the year 2016-17. For this leaves of chilli leaf spot were collected from the PGI farm MPKV Rahuri, which yielded the pathogen Alternaria alternata. The pathogenicity of Alternaria alternata was tested by Koch's postulates, which proved that the test pathogen was pathogenic to chilli. In vitro evaluation of effect of temperature and humidity revealed that test pathogen grew well with maximum sporulation at optimum temperature of 27  C with 80 per cent relative humidity. Six bioagents such as Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma hamatum, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis and yeast (S. cerevisiae) were evaluated in vitro against isolated pathogen applying Dual Culture Technique. Among them T. harzianum was found most effective in inhibiting the growth of Alternaria alternata of about (76.23 %) this was followed by T. hamatum (70.46 %), yeast (S. cerevisiae) (57.98 %), Bacillus subtilis (43.81%), Pseudomonas fluorescens (36.01%) and T. viride (34.81%), respectively. Among the six botanicals leaf extracts (2%) tested in vitro against the pathogen, Neem leaf extract was found most effective inhibiting (55%) of the pathogen Alternaria alternata followed by garlic cloves (41.25%), Tulsi leaf extract (36.25%), nilgiri leaf extract (32.5%), mixture of onion and garlic leaf extract (30%) and parthenium (28.75%) respectively. A total number of six fungicides viz., Carbendazim (0.05%), Chlorothalonil (0.1%), Hexaconazole (0.1%), Mancozeb (0.1%), Propiconazole (0.1%) and Captan (0.1%) were evaluated in vitro against the isolated pathogen applying poison food technique. Among them Mancozeb @ 0.1 %, Carbendazim @ 0.05 % and Captan @ 0.1% recorded maximum growth inhibition of 78.99, 78.66 and 74.78 per cent, respectively of the test pathogen with minimum colony diameter of 17.33 , 17.66 and 20.83 mm, respectively.

Present investigation reveals the study of morphological variation among different isolates of Colletotrichum gloeosporioides isolated from various crops. Forty one diseased specimens were collected from different localities of Western Maharashtra and subjected to tissue isolation on PDA. Out of 41 specimens obtained from different hosts, 14 isolates from 14 various hosts were found to be pathogenic when inoculated on respective plant part. These 14 isolates were used for further study and further abbreviated as Cg-1 to Cg-14. Colletotrichum gloeosporioides isolated differed significantly in all morphological traits except the type of mycelium. Mycelium of all isolates was septate. Maximum average mycelial growth rate of 12.14 mm day -1 was observed in isolates Cg-1 and Cg-14, isolated from pomegranate and sweet orange respectively. Almost all these 14 isolates were referred as fast growing. Isolates viz. Cg-7, Cg-9, Cg-10, Cg-11, Cg-12 and Cg-13 do not produce acervuli in culture. In rest of the 8 isolates, acervuli formation was noticed within 10-25 days after inoculation. The early development of acervuli after 10 days of inoculation was observed in Cg-3, Cg-5 and Cg-8. Cg-1 from pomegranate was poor in acervuli formation ability and required more time (18-20 days). The maximum length of acervuli were recorded in Cg-2, Cg-3 and Cg-5 (175µm) respectively. While it was minimum (137.67 µm) in Cg-4 and was statistically undifferentiable from Cg-1, Cg-6, Cg-8 and Cg-14.The average size of acervuli ranged between 137.67 -175.00 X 87.67 -170 µm. Extremely large acervuli was produced in culture of Cg-5 isolated from mango. There was a considerable variation in average length of the setae. The average maximum length of setae was (87.67µm) recorded in isolate Cg-8, which was isolated from chilli. The shortest setae were observed in Cg-2 and Cg-6 having average length of 60.00µm, isolated from custard apple and strawberry respectively. The average length of setae among all these isolates was recorded in between 60.00 -87.67 µm. All these 14 isolates produced conidia in pure culture within 7 days after inoculation. The average length and width of conidia of C. gloeosporioides ranged between10.00-12.33 X 3.00-4.33 µm and this difference was statistically significant. Large sized conidia (12.33 X 4.33 µm) was recorded in Cg-8, isolated from chilli. While that of small sized conidia (10.00 X 3.00 µm) were recorded in Cg-2 and Cg-9, isolated from custard apple and ginger respectively. The maximum L X B ratio (3.33) was observed in Cg-2 and Cg-9, both these isolates were from custard apple and ginger. While it was minimum (2.75) in Cg-14 i.e. isolated from sweet orange. There was great deal of variation in the colony characters within C. gloeosporioides isolates. The colony colour was the most variable factor and none of the isolate was found to be identical with each other. The most predominant colour was creamy white to gray with various intermediate shades. While in case of colony colour at reverse, most of the isolates had...

In this study, the total 45 samples were collected from areas of Western Maharashtra. Out of these only 20 rhizospheric soil samples had the population of Trichoderma spp. The Trichoderma was isolated from the soil samples collected from the different locations of western Maharashtra by serial dilution technique and plating method. By visual observations 6, T. hamatum, 7, T harzianum (Rifai), 3, T. koningii (Oudem) and 4, T. asperellum (Samuels) were identified. T. harzianum and T .hamatum were present in most of the soil samples collected from Western Maharashtra region. The T. asperellum species was obtained from soil samples collected from Dhabewadi, sakri, Pachora and Tasgaon region of western Maharashtra. These isolates of Trichoderma spp. were studied and identified on basis of macroscopic i.e. colony characters like growth rates, pigmentation, colony edge, pustule formation showing defined characteristics for that respective species.