Management of seed/soil borne diseases of safflower by chemical and biocontrol agents

An experiment was carried out at the Oil seed Research Unit, Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth Parbhani, Maharashtra, India to evaluate the efficacy of different chemicals and bioagents against seed/soil borne diseases of safflower on disease incidence (PI or DI). Significantly low disease severity (DS) and low disease incidence (DI) were recorded in treatment withT7, that is, Trichoderma harzianum Th4d sc at 2 ml/kg to the tune of 41.66% in Fusarium sp,  08.33% in Rhizoctonia sp,  06.66% in Phytophthora sp,  04.33% in Alternaria leaf spot and  03.33% in Cercospora leaf spot ,  respectively, in comparison with the untreated control. The seed yield data indicated that T. harzianum produced highest seed yield (2778 kg/ha) followed by Captan at 0.2% (2115 kg/ha) and Carbendazim+Mancozeb (SAFF) at 0.2% (2114 kg/ha). High infestation of safflower seeds by causal agents of seed/soil borne foot and root rots, reduction of seed germination and considerable infection transmission from seed to seedling were determined. Fungicide seed treatments, T1 to T8, markedly decreased incidence of diseases. Though the treatment with T7, that is, T. harzianum recorded the disease incidence, it produced the highest yield.   Key words: Management, seed/soil borne diseases, safflower.