Management of sheath blight in rice through application of Validamycin, Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescence

Abstract

Eleven different combinations of Trichoderma harzianum, Psedumonas fluorescens and Validamycin 3L, were applied at different crop stages viz. seed, seedling, tillering and symptoms initiation along with one application of Carbendazim as standard control to test their efficacy against sheath blight of rice caused by Rhizoctonia solani under field condition. One application of Carbendazim @ 0.1% at the time of symptoms initiation (with 81.36 percent reduction of disease incidence, 83.17 percent reduction in disease severity and 62.92 percent inhancement in yield) and seed treatment with Trichoderma harzianum and seedling root dipping with Pseudomonas fluorescens and two spraying of Validamycin i.e. at tillering and symptoms initiation stages (with 69.10 percent reduction of disease incidence,83.17 percent reduction in disease severity and 62.49 percent inhancement in yield) were found to be equally and highly effective in reducing the sheath blight severity and in increasing rice grain yield also. One spraying of Validamycin at symptoms initiation stage was comparatively less effective (29.54 per cent reduction in disease incidence,53.46 per cent reduction in disease severity and 47.76 per cent enhancement in yield ) than one spraying of Carbendazim at symptoms initiation stage.