Evaluation of Different Integrated Disease Management Approaches for Rhizome Rot of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.) Caused by Ralstonia solanacearum (Smith.) under Field Conditions

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe.,) is a slender herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, medicinally important and commercial spice crop. India is the largest producer of ginger and accounts for about 1/3rd of the total world output. Ginger is grown in Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and other parts of India. The production of ginger is greatly influenced by diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, mycoplasma and nematodes. One of the diseases of ginger is bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum, which causes yield loss of up to 80 percent. A field experiment was conducted with integrated approaches to manage the ginger rhizome rot caused by R. solanacearum (Smith). The experiment was laid out with a Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) including nine treatments and four replications. The experiment results revealed that, rhizome treatment with Streptocycline @ 0.5 g + COC @ 3.0 g/l of water + soil application with neem cake 3q/ha followed by drenching with bleaching powder (33%) @ 2.0 g/l + Metalaxyl MZ @ 1.0 g/lit for water three times at 20 days intervals + Ginger special spray 45 DAS, starting with the initiation of the disease was significantly most effective and recorded a higher yield of 110.27 q/ha with least disease incidence of disease (14.23 %). Integrated management of rhizome rot of ginger through soil solarization revealed that, among the different treatments, the treatment treated with soil solarization + rhizome treatment with Streptocycline @ 0.5 g + Copper Oxy Chloride @ 3.0 g/lit of water + Soil application of Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 10 kg along with 25t FYM /ha recorded higher yield of 115.23 q/ha with less percent disease incidence (8.20 %).