Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Lalruatpuii Punte and Sobita Simon

Abstract:
Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is the third most important food crop in the world after rice and wheat in terms of human consumption. It is attacked by many pathogens causing significant losses to potato producers throughout the world. Among them, early blight of potato caused by Alternaria solani is one of the major cause of concern in potato production at present. An experiment was conducted at Shuats, Allahabad during Rabi season 2021-2022 in a randomized block design (RBD) to evaluate the different doses of microalgae viz. 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% through irrigation in spent mushroom compost amended plots and bavistin were kept as a treated checked along with untreated control. The results revealed that microalgae @ 5% significantly reduced the disease intensity of Alternaria solani at 60, 75, 90 and 105 DAS (9.47%, 14.83%, 17.67% and 35.73%) as compared with other treatments. The plant height (cm) of potato was significantly increased in microalgae @ 5% at 45, 60, 75 and 105 DAS (13.80 cm, 20.80 cm, 27.40 cm and 36.57 cm over control. Thus, the use of microalgae can be exploited for the management of early blight (Alternaria solani) of potato.