Management of Root Rot (Rhizoctonia solani) of Okra Through Novel Combined Formulations of Fungicides

Lady’s finger or okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench] is known as “Bhindi” in Hindi, is one of the most important summer vegetables of Rajasthan as well as India and belongs to the family Malvaceae. This crop suffers harshly from the vagary of diseases caused by fungi and important one is root rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani, which is an important constraint to the crop and causes significant economic losses and fungicides are the major tool to overcome the disease incidence. During investigation, seven systemic and non-systemic fungicides were evaluated In vitro an d in vivo conditions for two consecutive years. All the tested fungicides showed highly inhibitory response at 100, 200 and 300 ppm concentrations. By treating the seeds with these fungicides, the highest disease reduction (85.91%), increased yield (30.65%) and maximum ICBR (1:215.89) was recorded with captan + hexaconazole (@ 0.2%) followed by tebuconazole + trifloxystrobin (81.59%, 30.10%, 1:140.55), penflufen + trifloxystrobin (78.82%, 29.11%, 1:209.08), fluxapyroxad + pyraclostrobin (75.58%, 27.67%, 1:111.12), hexaconazole (73.80%, 26.32%, 1:197.84), azoxystrobin (71.68%, 24.52%, 1:180.36) and least effective was copper hydroxide (69.38%, 22.75%, 1:169.18, respectively) over control. It is concluded that the use of combined formulations of fungicides may be the most powerful tools in managing root rot of okra with economical yield returns.