Management of rhizome rot of ginger caused by Pythium aphanidermatum

摘要

Rhizome rot of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) caused by Pythium aphanidermatum (Edson) Fitzp. is a serious disease leading to considerable crop loss in Kerala (Sharma et al., 1979) and Gudalur in Nilgris District. Kaannan and Nair (1965) recorded losses upto 80-90 per cent due to soft rot in Kerala. In the high rainfal zone of Tamil Nadu where the crop is rainfed, the disease incidence is coinciding with the monsoon season. Shahar and Asthna (1962) reported that soil appliocation of Bordeaux mixture was found to be effective against P. aphanidermatum. The efficacy of Ridomil was proved against P. myriotylum as one of the casual agents of ginger soft rot in North India (Dohroo et al. 1984). Martin et al. (1986) reported that Latesaria arvalis added to the soil resulted in the reduction of damping off of table beets casued by Pythium sp. Papavizas and Lewis (1983) reported that incorporation of Trichoderma viride reduced the P. ultimum in pea. In the present study the efficacy of fungicides and bio-control agents on soft rot of ginger was evaluated since the antagonistic organisms have the potentiality to suppress the soil borne plant pathogens and they have no residual toxicity.