SummarySeven isolates belonged to A. brasilense and 3 belonged to A. lipoferum. Isolates having more denitrifying capacity fixed less nitrogen in nitrogen free semi-solid malate medium. One strain ofA. lipoferum having high nitrogen fixing capacity with negative test for denitrification was tested as inoculant to supplement the nitrogen need of a wheat crop in field condition with different doses of N with and without the inoculant. While control without nitrogen yielded 1260kg/ha the yield in inoculated treatment was 2070 kg/ha resulting in significant increase. In a treatment receiving 40 kg N/ha the grain yield was 2370 kg/ha as against yield of 3110 kg/ha in a similar treatment receiving fertiliser plus inoculant. Thus increase in yield was about 30%. Further the treatment receiving 80 kg N/ha yielded 2970 kg/ha as against yield of 4150 kg/ha in a treatment receiving in oculant alongwith the above dose of the fertiliser. Thus increase in yield due to application ofinoculant was about 36%. Similarly, the uptake of N in different treatments was augmented due to inoculation of seeds with the culture,

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Laboratory and green house experiments were conducted during 2002 to find out the sensitivity of different Azolla species to rice herbicides. From the screening experiment in the laboratory, three herbicides viz. anilofos 0.4 kg ha', butachlor 1.25 kg ha and clomazone 0.3 kg ha and four species of Azolla viz., A. microphylla, A. filiculoides, TNAU hybrid and Rong Ping hybrid at 500 kg ha were chosen and compared independently and in different combinations in the pot culture experiment. Rice var. CO 47 was raised under green house conditions and the experiment was carried out under FRBD with 3 replications. The growth, yield and yield parameters were recorded after imposing the treatments. The results revealed that combination of clomazone 0.3 kg ha and A. microphylla performed significantly superior with respect to plant growth, yield attributes and yield. Among the herbicides tried, clomazone application at 03 kg ha¹ showed an increase in plant growth characters, yield attributes and yield. Between the individual Azolla species, A. microphylla recorded the highest grain yield and was on par with A. filiculoides.

Leaf rot of cauliflower caused by Choanephora cucurbitarum is reported for the first time in India. Koch's postulates were fulfilled for the first time for this fungushost association demonstrating that C. cucurbitarum, known to be the pathogen behind soft rot on numerous hosts is also a pathogen of cauliflower.Keywords Brassica oleracea . Mucorales . Soft rot . Vegetable diseases . Zygomycota Choanephora cucurbitarum (Mucorales) is an important plant pathogen that causes soft rot of floral parts and fruits of many plants, including summer squash, pumpkin, pepper and okra (Agrios 1997). Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) is an important crop in India and any diseases found on this host are of potential agricultural and economic relevance.In September 2012, 2013 and 2014, leaves of an early variety of cauliflower (cv Early Kuary) bearing typical soft rot symptoms, accompanied by superficial fungal growth were collected at Palarikhurd Village, Sonipat (28°59′26.53″ N; 77°00′57.30″ E; 249 m a.s.l.), Haryana, India. Disease symptoms were observed and photographed in the field. Samples were taken for later examination in the laboratory. Fragments of infected leaves bearing pin head-like fungal growth were surface sterilized by dipping in 1 % sodium hypochlorite for 1 min and rinsing once with sterilized distilled water and aseptically transferred to plates containing PDA (potato dextrose-agar) and left at room temperature for 48 h. Homogeneous cultures were obtained and one was selected for further study and deposited in the Indian Type Culture Collection (ITCC 7521).Slides were prepared by mounting a colony fragment in lactophenol. The fungal structures were observed under a microscope (Olympus, Magnus MLXi). The morphological and cultural characters of the fungus were recorded and compared with published descriptions of soft rot-fungi (Kwon et al. 2001;Kagiwada et al. 2010). Profuse and rapidly growing white mycelium was formed on PDA after 36 h. Sporangiophores bearing apical sporangiola were formed. Sporangia were sub-globose (35 -85 μm diam) and monosporus sporangiola were elliptic, fusiform or ovoid (8-13× 11-22 μm) (Fig. 1c). Sporangiospores were elliptic, fusiform or ovoid (7-10.5 × 10-27 μm), brown, with or without three or more thin appendages at both ends (Fig. 1d). This morphology is typical of C. cucurbitarum as described by Kwon et al. (2001) and Kagiwada et al. (2010).Identity of the fungus involved on cauliflower leaf rot was further investigated by comparison of ITS and TEF sequences of ITCC 7521 with GenBank data (White et al. 1990).Genomic DNA was extracted from the pure culture of C. cucurbitarum through the cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) method with slight modifications (Karthikeyan et al. 2010). DNA extracted by adding chloroform: isoamyl alcohol in the ratio of 24:1centrifuged at 12,000 rpm/10 min * Robin Gogoi