Evaluation of different biocontrol agents against collar rot (Sclerotium rolsii Sacc.) of chickpea under pot condition

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) family fabaceae is one of the most important leguminous crops grown all around the world. The crop was found to suffer from collar rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolsii Sacc. in severe form in many regions of Gujarat where groundnut-chickpea cropping sequence is present. So, for its management different biocontrol agents were evaluated under pot condition. Among them antagonists found best in inhibition in dual culture experiment were selected for pot culture experiment. The seed treatment of Trichoderma spp. isolate 3 was found most effective with incidence of 22.79 per cent. Pseudomonus fluorescence was observed as second most effective bioagent in reducing disease incidence with 61.76 per cent followed by Bacillus subtilis with 74.85 per cent disease incidence. Similarly, organic amendments viz., farm yard manure, neem cake, vermicompost and poultry manure enriched with effective bioagents were evaluated in pot culture experiment and found that all were effective in reducing per cent disease incidence. Among them farm yard manure enriched with Trichoderma spp. isolate 3 showed maximum reduction of disease incidence of 5.09, followed by neem cake, vermicompost and poultry manure enriched with Trichoderma spp. isolate 3 by recording disease incidence of 8.08, 8.91 and 31.54 %, respectively.