THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT FUNGICIDES ON THE GROWTH PARAMETERS OF FOUR MAIZE VARIETIES INFESTED WITH FUSARIUM OXYSPORUM IN HADEJIA, JIGAWA STATE

Abstract Maize is one of the most popular food crops in Nigeria is widely consume by millions of Nigerians and also used for the product of animal feeds. However, the maize plant in field is suffering from many biotic constrains, one which is vascular wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum. The study was aimed at investigating the effects of different fungicides in the control of this disease. The Experiment was conducted at Botanical Garden, Federal University Dutse to determine the relative efficacy of some seed treatments fungicides in the control of fusarium wilt in four varieties of maize (Quality protein maize, Early maturing maize, Susuma maize and hybrid variety maize). The four seed treatment fungicides were Seed care, Blast force, Dress force, and Z force). The experimental design was 4×4 factorials laid out in Completely Randomized Design with four replications given a total of 64 treatment combinations. The procedure of general linear model was employed to analyze the data. Results of this experiment showed that all the four Fungicides demonstrated effectiveness in controlling wilt diseases, with the Seed Care fungicide proving to be the most effective in reducing disease incidence. Fungicide treatments also positively influenced plant growth parameters such as plant height, leaf number, and chlorophyll content.