Basal stem rot and blight disease incited by Sclerotium rolfsii resulted in significant crop loss in vegetable cowpea. Among the different levels of pH tested under in vitro conditions, pH 6.0 was revealed to be optimum for the mycelial growth, whereas pH 7.0 supported maximum sclerotia formation. Soil moisture of 35 to 50 per cent was ideal for early disease expression and establishment. A minimum level of two per cent fungal inoculum multiplied in sand oats medium resulted in complete disease incidence. Among the botanicals tested in vitro, garlic bulb extract (1%) and garlic creeper leaf extract (5%) revealed cent per cent inhibition of mycelial growth and sclerotia formation of the fungus. Both the extracts also inhibited the mycelial regeneration from sclerotia. Thus, garlic bulb and garlic creeper were revealed to be potent botanicals which can be used as effective alternatives to soil fumigants for the management of S. rolfsii.

An experiment was conducted to assess the compatibility of the popular insecticides like spinosad, cypermethrin, imidacloprid and chlorantraniliprole as well as fungicides copper oxychloride, carbendazim and hexaconazole with native isolates of M. anisopliae (MC 2, MC 4, MC 7). Among the isolates, MC 2, MC 7 and MC 4 were found compatible with insecticides spinosad, imidacloprid and chlorantraniliprole as well as fungicide copper oxychloride. Isolates MC 2 and MC 7 exhibited highest growth with only 3.70 and 5.18 per cent inhibition in the PDA medium amended with highest dose of copper oxychloride (0.30 g/ l ) when compared to MC 4 (7.03 % inhibition). Among the three isolates tested, the isolate MC 7 was more compatible with highest growth at all higher doses of chlorantraniliprole (0.35 ml/L), spinosad (0.38ml/ l) and imidacloprid (0.15g/ l) by recording least per cent growth inhibition (11.00, 11.41 and 14.44 per cent inhibition respectively). The insecticide cypermethrin was slightly toxic to all the isolates of M. anisopliae and fungicides, carbendazim and hexaconazole were not compatible with the M. anisopliae isolates.