Vol. 10, Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
Aradhna Sagwal, Satish Kumar and Kushal Raj

Abstract:
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the major vegetable crops widely grown in almost every country in the world. The crop is prone to attack of various pathogens from early sowing of crop till maturity and amongst various soil borne diseases, root rot disease complex of tomato considered as the most devastating disease complex in Haryana. Fungus is an essential component of the interacting system of a fungus-nematode complex disease and plays an important role in the disease etiology. The present study was conducted under screen house conditions to know the effect of concomitant occurrence of Rhizoctonia solani and Meloidogyne javanica on root rot disease complex in tomato. Seeds of tomato cv. Hisar Arun (Selection 7) were inoculated with the nematode or fungus individually or simultaneously in various combinations and it was found that that maximum pre emergence plant mortality (30per cent), post emergence plant mortality (53.3 per cent) and 83.3 per cent disease incidence occurred when M. javanica (1000 J₂/kg soil) was inoculated one week prior to R. solani (1000mg/kg soil) followed by occurrence of 63.3 per cent disease incidence when R. solani and M. javanica were inoculated simultaneously. The severity of disease incidence was enhanced when inoculation of M. javanica preceded R. solani confirming that interaction of both the pathogens require consideration for management strategies.