A Comparative Study Between Detached Leaf and Plastic Growth Pouches Techniques on the Infection of Pseudocercospora Leaf Spot Disease of Cowpea Cultivars (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) in Northeast Thailand

Abstract

This glasshouse experiment was carried out in the 2004 at the Department of Agricultural Production, Faculty of Technology, Mahasarakham University, Mahasarakham 4400, Northeast Thailand to compare amounts of infection of Pseudocercospora leaf spot disease in leaves of cowpea cultivars being screened between detached leaf and plastic growth pouches techniques. The experiment was laid in a factorial arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications. KVC7, IT81D-1228-14-1 and KKU25 cowpea cultivars were used as factor A, detached leaf and plastic growth pouches techniques were used as factor B and four levels of the concentrations of the spores of the disease, i.e., 0, l x 10(4), 5 x 10(4) and 1 x 10(5) of disease forming units mL(-1) of distilled water were used as factor C. The results showed that KVC7 and IT81D-1228-14-1 cultivars possessed immune and high resistant properties against the disease, respectively, whereas KKU25 cultivar ranked as a susceptible cultivar. Detached leaf technique gave higher amount of infection of the disease than plastic growth pouches technique and the differences were highly significant. A plentiful amount of Infected disease was attained with an inoculation rate of l x 10(5) forming units mL(-1) of distilled water, which was considered too high and the most appropriate concentrations for use lie on both concentrations, i.e., 1 x 10(4) and 5 x 10(4) forming units mL(-1) of distilled water. An interaction among factors AxBxC was severely found with KKU25 cultivar, particularly on day 28 after inoculation, whilst other two cultivars gave a minute amount of disease incidences (%) where detached leaf technique gave much higher disease incidences than plastic growth pouches technique, thus detached leaf technique should be of higher advantages.