NASIR MEHMOOD

06- arid- 109

MSc ( Hons) 3rd Semester

Department of Plant Pathology

INTRODUCTION

 Scientific Name : Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. Mill.  Family : Solanaceae

 Second most important vegetable crop.  Native to South America (Peru).  World production 152.9 million tons (FAOSTAT Database, 2009).  China is the largest producer

    

Important vegetables crop of Pakistan 2nd major vegetable, produced in Pakistan (Mirza, 2007). Total production of 562.9 thousand tones Yield 10.52 t/ha (Agricultural Statistics of Pakistan, 2010). low Yield as compared to other countries of the world e.g., 73.87 t/ha in USA, 63.55 t/ha in Spain, 88.91 t/ha in California and 146 t/ha in the Netherlands. low yield, in Pakistan, the diseases are important among which early blight is of most important disease.

 Susceptible to over 200 Diff diseases (Lukyanenko, 1991).

Fungal diseases included

 Early blight  Late blight  Septoria leaf spot  Southern blight  Powdery mildew  Gray mold & leaf mold  Verticillium wilt & Fusarium wilt  Phytophthora root and crown rot (Satour and Butler, 1967; Bolkan, 1985).

EARLY BLIGHT OF TOMATO

 Also known as target spot disease  Pathogen ..Alternaria solani  Class : Deuteromycetes
 

1st recorded in 1882 in New Jersey,USA (Bose and Som, 1986). Survives on infected plant debris - partially buried debris is an excellent source of inoculums Spores wind dispersed, can be carried long distances Greatest threat of infection: Fields with short rotations  Planting adjacent to fields infected previous year where debris not completely buried Infection occurs first on oldest leaves


 

 Mycelium.Septate, branched light brown hyphae turned darker with age.  Conidiophores .short, 50 to 90 m and dark coloured.  Asexual conidia are borne singly or in a chain .  Beaked conidia possess 9-11 transverse as well as vertical septa

SYMPTOMS
   

On Young Seedling at Collar region On Stem On Leaves On Fruits

Disease appears on leaves, stems, petiole, twig and fruits . Under favourable conditions resulting in
  

Collar rot, Leaf blight, Defoliation Drying off of twigs and Premature fruit drop &

Cause loss from 50 to 86 percent in fruit yield

(Mathur and Shekhawat, 1986) ; (Chaerani et al., 2007). al.,

On Young Seedling at Collar region

Affect the stems of the tomato plants. condition is known as "collar rot".

Collar rot occurs when the young stem becomes girdled with dark lesions at the soil level

 On Stem

Small, dark, slightly sunken areas that enlarge to form circular or elongated spots with lighter-colored centers.

 On Leaves

Concentric circles and look like a "bull's eye"

 On Fruits

Most destructive in Tropical and Subtropical regions. ubtropical Each 1% increase in intensity can reduce yield by 1.36%, and complete crop failure can occur when the disease is most severe ( Pandey et al., 2003 ). Annual estimated expenditure globally on fungicides for control is around $32 million in tomatoes (APS). Nonsprayed fields ..5 - 78%. Yield losses of up to 79% have been reported in the U.S., of which 20-40% is due to seedling losses (i.e., collar rot) in the 20field ( Chaerani and Voorrips, 2006 ).

MANAGEMENT OF EARLY BLIGHT OF TOMATO

THE MANAGEMENT MEASURES INCLUDES

 Pathogen-free tomato seed  Use of disease-free transplants  3- to 5-year crop rotation ( Rotations with small grains, maize or legumes are preferable)  Routine applications of fungicides  weed management

(Madden et al., 1978; Sherf and MacNab 1986; Jones et al., 1991).


Resistant cultivars are potentially the most economical control measure as they can extend the fungicide spray intervals while maintaining control of the disease

(Madden et al., 1978; Shtienberg et al., 1995; Keinath et al., 1996).

 Functional male sterile line TMS2 was found a good source of resistance for Early and late blight at NIAB.  Water management: If possible avoid over-head irrigation & Irrigate early in the morning.  Soil management: Compost or well decomposed animal manures.. Nitrogen and phosphorus deficiency can increase susceptibility to EB. Excess nitrogen could induce early blight infection.  Destroy crop debris.   Practice proper plant spacing and staking. Hot water seed treatment at 122F for 25 minutes is recommended.

Grafting blight resistant scions to soil borne disease resistant rootstocks    identified as disease management practice increase plant vigor in tomato production, increasing yield (King et al., 2008).

 Indeterminate tomato and late-maturing potato varieties

 Mulching helps to prevent splashing of spores from soil up to lower leaves.

 Fungicide treatments are generally the most effective control measures, but are not economically feasible and may not be effective under weather conditions favorable for epidemics (Herriot et al., 1986).

 Most of the fungicides like Mancozeb, copperoxychloride, carbendazim, propiconazole, Bavistin, Metko, Zineb Thiophenate methyl & Strobilurins have been found effective for the control of the disease under field condition (Chand, 2005; Javancev, 1998; Singh et al., 2002; Pathak, 1995; Fontem and
Aigheuri, 1992 & Vishwakarma, 1989;).

Environmental and Economical concerns regarding agricultural chemicals have resulted in searching of alternatives i.e. bio-agents (Atia, 2005; Shadia et al., 2008 and Esh et al., 2010).

 Foliar spray of bio-agents. effective and new ecofriendly tech for management of diseases of crop plants (Fitt, 1993; Wu, 1995; Chand, 2005; Singh et al., 2010).  Bioagents against A. solani, i.e. Cladosporium herbarum, Aspergillus spp. , Penicillium spp. , Acremonium strictum, ,botrytis and Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (Ahmed and Saleh, 1991).

 T. harzianum & T. viride (El- Farnawany , 2006; Amal, 2009).  Pseudomonas sp. (Casida and Lukezic, 1993).  Bacillus megaterium, B. brevis and B. subtilis var globigii
(Liu and Wu, 1997)

 Streptomyces pulcher (El- Abyad et al., 1993).

 Biological fungicides such as Serenade Max and Sonata shown to suppressive efficacy on early blight in field (Zitter et al., 2006). F-Stop : seed treatment for tomatoes, contains a biocontrol agent called Trichoderma viride. T-22G Granules, in-furrow soil treatment on tomatoes and other vegetables, contains Trichoderma harzianum, strain KRL-AG2.

Plant extracts ..A good Alternative Several plant extract possess excellent fungicidal properties
(Daaf et al., 1995; Kapadiya and Dhruj, 2001; Dubey 2003; Chakraborty et al., 2007; Chand and Singh, 2004; Panchal et al., 2009).

Plant extracts of medicinal species Garlic extract was the best extract used tomato early blight disease (Ashrafuzzaman et al., 1990) . Plant extracts systemic inducers of resistance, which were, safe for men and environmental, has long lasting activity and effective against wide rang of pathogen (Kessman et al., 1994 and Van Loon et al., 1997). Liao et al., (2003), Found that, resistance in tomato plants to EB caused by A. solani was induced by chitosan at the four leaf stage of seedlings and activate its defense mechanisms.

 Neem and Dhatura leaf extract (Panchal, 2009; Chakrawarti et al., 2007 and Kapadiya and Dhruj, 2001).  Spraying 3 % of neem oil on tomato pot cultures resulted in 53 % reduction in disease incidence over the control  Neem products reduce tomato early blight in the field.  Acacia concinna pod extract effective against EB (Babu et al., 2000 & 2000a) .  Incidence of tomato EB was affected by Neem seed extract botanical & increased fruit yield (Patil et al., 2001 ).  leaf extracts of some plants i.e Tamarix aphylla and Salsola baryosma totally inhibit the growth of the A. solani in-vivo (Dushyent and bohra, 1997).

 Garlic and neem oils and seaweed extract effective in reducing the severity of early blight disease on tomato
(Wszelaki and Miller, 2005).

 Compost extract, prepared in a ratio of 1:5 compost:water (v/v), showed a significant reduction in EB in Tomato
(Tsror, 1999).

 EB severity was less in tomato plants grown in compostamended soil

(Baysal-Gurel et al., 2009).

 Efficacy of compost tea was improved when combined with the biofungicides Serenade Max (Bacillus subtilis) and Sonata (Bacillus pumilis).
(Kouyoumjian, 2007).