Effect of Silicon Fertilizers on Management of Brown Spot Disease of Sugarcane under Natural Field Conditions

Brown spot (Cercospora longipes), which was a minor fungal foliar disease is now causing serious threat to sugarcane production and had shifted to the major one. To improve the quality of sugarcane and increase its production it is necessary to prevent the crop from negative impacts of diseases. Field bioefficacy experiment was conducted to studied silicon fertilizer treatments for the management of brown spot disease of sugarcane caused by Cercospora longipes during 2022-23 at Central Sugarcane Research Station, Padegaon. A field experiment was laid out in randomized block design during Suru 2023 with eight treatments and three replications by using susceptible cv. CoM 0265. The results indicated that the brown spot disease intensity ranged from 6.82 to 38.85 per cent during period of experiment. Among the treatments, foliar spray of Potassium silicate @ 0.5% at 120 and 150 DAP was found significantly superior and the most effective for the control of brown spot disease of sugarcane as compared to the rest of the treatments and recorded minimum per cent disease intensity (6.82%) and highest 82.45 per cent disease control , highest number of internode length (23.23cm), cane girth (12.15 cm), No. of internodes (21.92/cane), single cane weight (2.14 kg), NMC (88,890/ha), CCS yield (21.96 t/ha), cane yield (147.50 t/ha), CCS% (14.89%), Brix (21.87), Purity (95.21%) and sucrose content (21.12%), respectively as compared to untreated control. The analysis of silicon and potassium concentration showed that the range of mean Si and K concentration observed was 5.97 g/kg to 11.31 g/kg and 1.25% to 2.13% respectively. The observations showed that mean Si and K concentrations were found highest in foliar spray of Potassium silicate @ 0.5% at 120 DAP and 150 DAP.