Abstract

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.