Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Bhagyashree Bhatt and Geeta Sharma

Abstract:
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a pathogen which has the ability to cause infection in wide range of plants. The pathogen, being soil borne in nature and with the potential to produce sclerotia is difficult to manage. There are reports of cross infectivity of the pathogen that is the isolate which infects one crop can infect the other crop as well. A study was conducted to observe whether the isolates of the pathogen collected from different hosts can cause White mold disease in tomato plants. The pathogen was isolated from different host crops on the basis of symptoms produced on different hosts. Ten different hosts were taken into consideration viz, Chickpea, Gerbera, Summer squash, Cucumber, Capsicum, Pea, Mustard, Okra, Brinjal, and Chilli, and the infectivity of the isolates was tested using Detached leaf method. It was observed that all the isolates were able to produce lesion on healthy tomato leaves. The size of lesion produced by all the isolates varied in size. The lesion of maximum size was produced by Gerbera isolate (30mm) and the smallest lesion formation was observed in case of Brinjal isolate (6mm).