Application of Organic Amendments and Botanical Foliar Sprays against Bacterial Diseases of Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

A Field trial was conducted at the Eastern farm of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, during the 2012 farming season to assess the potentials of some organic soil amendments and some botanicals as foliar sprays in the control of some common bacterial diseases associated with munbean (Vigna radiata L.) which include bacterial blight, halo blight, leaf spot and bacterial wilt. The soil organic amendments employed as control measure included leaves of Azadirachta indica, Delonix regia, poultry droppings and kitchen ash while the plant extracts that served as foliar sprays in control of these bacterial diseases were: neem seed (A. indica), ginger stem (Zingiber officinale) and bitter kola seed (Garcinia kola), water was used as a control while streptomycin sulphate served as a standard check. A. indica and D. regia leaves were first allowed to decompose before application as organic amendments. All the experiment was in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) and replicated three times. Results obtained showed that organic amendments sourced from kitchen ash improved growth of mungbean, sustained total pod yield and suppressed disease incidence and severity. Foliar spray trials results showed that A. indica was the best in enhancing growth, yield (seed weight) and most effective in reducing disease incidence and disease severity more than other plant extracts.