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STUDIES ON THE CONTROL OF TOMATO DAMPING-OFF DISEASE CAUSED BY RHIZOCTONIA SOLANI KUHN

M.M. Jiskani^*, M.A. Pathan, K.H. Wagan, M. Imran and H. Abro^**

Abstract: Survey of tomato fields of Hyderabad district was conducted to estimate the incidence of damping-off disease. Maximum disease incidence was recorded at Village Darya Khan Nahiyoun (65.0%) followed by Khatian Satation (60.0%) and the minimum were at Khesano Mori (35.0%). Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn was isolated as the predominant damping-off fungus with highest frequency (60.0%) from the over all tomato fields followed by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Macrophomina phaseolina, Alternaria solani and Verticillium albo-atrum. Pathogenicity test of Rhizoctonia solani was conducted by artificially inoculating the steam sterilized soil. The maximum number of infected plants emerged from the infested soil after 30 days of sowing as compared to 15 days of sowing. The overall disease incidence was 63.63% from artificially infested soil whereas 13.33% was observed in un-inoculated soil. Four fungicides viz., Topsin-M, Benlate, Copper oxychloride and Derosal were applied as soil drench. Topsin-M significantly increased the germination, number of plants and plant growth followed by Benlate, Copper oxychloride and Derosal.

Department of Plant Pathology, Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam, Pakistan

^**Institute of Botany, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan