Vol. 11, Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Gyanendra Singh, UK Khare, Jayant Bhatt, Anita Babbar, AR Wasnikar, Ashish Kumar and Pawan K Amrate

Abstract:
Collar rot incited by Sclerotium rolfsii is a serious disease of chickpea in Central India. It causes plant mortality mostly in early stage of crop and significantly affect the varietal yield potential in the region. In present study, Morphological, cultural and pathogenic variabilities of fifteen isolates of isolated from chickpea fields across Madhya Pradesh were investigated. The isolates showed significant variation for cultural growth and sclerotial characteristic. Isolates i.e. SR 6, SR 8, SR 10, SR 11 and SR 12 (isolated from Damoh, Panna Dindori, Satna and Rewa, respectively) were very fast growing as recorded 90 mm radial growth within 5 days after inoculation. The shape of sclerotia showed variation from Spherical (SR 1, SR SR 2, SR 3, SR 6, SR 7, SR 8, SR 10, SR 11, SR 14 and SR 15) to Irregular (isolates SR 4, SR 5, SR 9, SR 12 and SR 13). The arrangement of sclerotia on media surface also showed great variation from peripheral (SR 1, SR 5, SR 9, SR 10, SR 11 and SR 15), scattered over the plate (SR 2, SR 7, SR 8), scattered and peripheral (SR 3, SR 4, SR 6, SR 13 and SR 14) and central and peripheral (SR 12), respectively. In case of pathogenic variability, all the isolates recorded post emergence mortality of chickpea seedling within 30 days of sowing. The maximum average post emergence mortality 68.60% was observed by SR 4 (Seoni) followed by SR 6 (Damoh, 67.72%) and SR 10 (Dindori, 50.82%).