Establishment of correlation between nutritional disorders and bacterial blight disease of pomegranate in Marathwada region

The present investigation was carried out during 2023-2024 to establish correlation between nutritional disorders and bacterial blight disease of pomegranate in Marathwada region. The soil and plant samples were collected from thirty pomegranate orchards in which bacterial blight was reported from 10 different villages of Chh. Sambhajinagar district. The available N, P, K, S and exchangeable Ca and Mg were in sufficiency range while, there was deficiency of Fe and B micronutrients contents in pomegranate orchards soils of Chh. Sambhajinagar district. Bacterial blight infected plants were noted sufficiency of macronutrients N, P, K and S and shown deficiency of Fe and B micronutrients contents in pomegranate orchard soils. The results of correlation between soil parameters and bacterial blight infected plants has shown that, the higher bacterial blight disease severity in pomegranate plant is due to lower concentration of a soil Fe, B and Mn along with lower leaf content of K, Ca, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn and B along with higher content of leaf N, Mg, P and S nutrients. Correlation between soil macronutrients and micronutrients with bacterial blight infected plants was observed. The higher content of leaf N, P, Mg and S and lower content of leaf K, Ca, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn and B may be responsible for development of bacterial blight incidence and severity in pomegranate plants. Thus, plants gaining imbalance plant nutrition may suffer from bacterial blight.