Vol. 11, Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Siddu Lakshmi Prasanna and Priya John

Abstract:
Maize is one of the major food and forage crop grown globally and it is the most versatile crop adapted to different agro-ecological and climatic conditions. Maydis leaf blight is the destructive foliar disease in maize and to manage it biologically different natural available products were used for in vitro evaluation. Among the 11 botanicals tested, Ginger at 10 per cent concentration showed maximum inhibition of mean mycelial growth (72.68%) followed by Datura (69.59%), Sarpagandha (68.82%) and minimum inhibition in mycelial growth (30.21%) was recorded in Onion at 5 per cent concentration. Six biocontrol agents also evaluated for their antagonistic activity against B. maydis using dual culture technique and found maximum inhibition in mean mycelial growth in T. harzianum and T. koningii (78.97%) followed by T. viride (76.92%) and the least was found in B. subtilis (34.62%). Five plant defense activators were also evaluated for their antagonistic activity against B. maydis using by poisoned food technique at 100, 250 and 500 ppm. Among the different plant defense activators tested, at 500ppm concentration potassium phosphite was found most effective in inhibiting the mycelial growth of B. maydis with mean inhibition of 72.19 per cent followed by salicylic acid (70.04%), β-aminobutyric acid (64.42%) and least was found in benzoic acid (32.68%).