Influence of different weather parameters on development of early blight of tomato in Gird region of Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

The most devastating disease in all tomato-growing regions of the world is early blight, also known as target leaf spot of tomato, which is caused by the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria solani. The effect of environmental conditions on the emergence of early blight was researched during the winter of 2021–2022. The illness always began to show symptoms during the 47th Standard Meteorological Week (SMW) and quickly spread throughout the growing season. Maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and evaporation all had statistically positive correlations, however maximum relative humidity and the severity of early blight disease were shown to be strongly negatively correlated. The stepwise regression model predicted that the minimum humidity and maximum temperature would account for 80% of the variation in the disease severity. A model created utilising the experimental data can be utilised to forecast the development of tomato early blight, which will aid in the adoption of timely management techniques.