Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Sneha Joshi and RM Srivastava

Abstract:
Whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) feeds on tomato plants and possess great economic threat by transmitting plant viruses, primarily begomoviruses tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV). Twelve tomato hybrids viz; Karan, Shivam, RDS2755, Avirat, Heemsohna, Angad, Arjun, To1458, Sawan, Laxmi, Naveen and Pant T3 were evaluated against whitefly, Bemisia tabaci during 2020-21 in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RBD) with three replication at VRC GBPUAT Pantnagar, (U.K, India). Observation on whitefly population on tomato hybrids was recorded at weekly intervals from appearance of whiteflies during morning hours. The results showed that none of the tomato variety was found completely free from the whitefly infestation. The infestation of whitefly started in the third week of November. The infestation increased gradually and attained its peak in the last week of March. Thereafter, the population declined abruptly. The average minimum (1.16 /plant) and maximum (3.99/plant) whitefly population during crop season was observed on Heemsohna and Karan, respectively. According to mean of whitefly population the maximum resistance among tested cultivar was found in Heemsohna followed by Arjun, RDS 2755, Avirat, Laxmi, To1458, Shivam, Pant T3, Sawan, Angad, Naveen and Karan. Among all the varieties, Heemsohna recorded only 11.14% disease incidence and found statistically significant as compared to other varieties while the highest disease incidence was observed in Variety Karan (36.97%).