Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. is known to be a serious pathogen on many crops of economic importance including cucurbits. Due to proliferic growth and ability to forming sclerotia, this pathogen is the major constraint in successful cultivation of cucumber. The present investigation was thus carried out to evaluate the potential of nine different fungicides i.e. carbendazim, thiophenate methyl, vinclozoline, captan, copper oxychloride, mancozeb, hexaconazole, mycobutanil and propiconazole at different concentrations of 10, 50, 100 and 150 ppm, on the growth inhibition of S. rolfsii. The primary assessment was made on in vitro screening of fungicides and its concentration whereby hexaconazole at lowest concentration (10 ppm) rendered the most vital effect (P<0.0001) on growth reduction ability followed by propiconazole and mycobutanil. No growth of S. rolfsii observed on plates amended with hexaconazole when the concentration was further increased. Similar effect was traced in an experiment conducted on root trainer. The percent infected plant also provided the same impact of fungicides received in toxic-assay experiment. Maximum seedlings protection of cucumber was achieved through seed application of hexaconazole even at lowest concentration (P<0.01); similarly, no mortality was detected on higher concentration of this fungicide. Although our result directly claiming the best effect of hexaconazole but we propose to use a combination of fungicides from different groups in order to avoid resistance development in S. rolfsii against a particular fungicide. A combination of carbendazim and hexaconazole is hereby proposed for seedling protection of cucumber to S. rolfsii.How to view point the article : Kumar, Ritesh, Ghatak, Abhijeet and Bhagat, Arun P. (2018). Assessing fungicides for seedling protection of cucumber to collar rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii. Internat. J. Plant Protec., 11(1) : 10-17,

Bael (Aegle marmelos) is one of the important known fruit crops of India which have widely distributed in Northern India. Alternaria leaf blight of Aegle marmelos (L.) (Bael) was reported for the first time in from Eastern Plateau and Hill region of India. The symptoms initially observed as light brown to dark brown spots of indefinite size appearing on leaves with light brown or dark brown rings. Infected leaves further get blighted and fall down after drying and in extreme cases of disease entire infected plants become died. The disease was observed both in nursery and orchards but in nursery it observed quite severe than orchard. The disease-causing pathogen was isolated and identified as Alternaria alternata on the basis of its disease symptoms, colony morphology and microscopic characteristics of mycelium, conidiophores and conidia. Alternaria leaf blight of bael was successfully managed by the foliar application of Chlorothalonil 75WP @ 2.5-3g/L / Carbendazim 50 WP @1-1.5g/L.

In the present context of agriculture, which depends on hazardous chemicals to meet the growing need of presently increasing population and as a result, the conditions of soil as well as the environment is diminishing day by day. The only alternative of these problems is to utilize the natural resources i.e. biocontrol agents to combat with various types of biotic as well as abiotic factors. In the present study, Trichoderma viride was used as a biocontrol agent against Sclerotium rolfsii in cowpea plant. The germination percentage, plant height, number of stem, number of leaves, phenol (OD) and fresh weight was found maximum in cowpea plants which were soil and seed treated with biocontrol agent. Disease Incidence was also found minimum in the plants treated with maximum amount of biocontrol agent. These biocontrol agents are proving a better substitute to harmful agrochemicals and should be used as well as explored in a large fashion for better production of crops in a sustainable manner, which alongside insurance against pests and diseases are reliable for small farmers.

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An experiment was conducted to find out efficacy of different non-conventional chemicals to manage the early blight disease in potato. Study was carried out with seven chemicals i.e. lithium sulphate, calcium chloride, oxalic acid, salicylic acid, iron sulphate, potassium bicarbonate and ascorbic acid in in vitro condition for their conidial germination efficacy against Alternaria solani. It was observed that, oxalic acid@ 1.0 ppm concentration exhibited highest per cent inhibition of conidial germination (88.89%) over control after 24 hrs. The next best conidial germination inhibition (75.00%) was observed in case of lithium sulphate@ 1ppm concentration. This was followed by potassium bicarbonate, where 71.43% conidial germination inhibition was observed @ 1 ppm concentration. In the field condition, also the oxalic acid @ 1 ml/ lit exhibited best result in terms of percent disease incidence (32.62%), percent disease intensity (24.32%) at 73 DAP and yield of tubers (25.31 t/ha) as compared to control treatment. The overall disease reduction in case of oxalic acid was 42.10% over control which was also highest compared to all other treatments.