Impact of Pythium Infection on Vegetable Production and Its Management
Author : Naina Srivastava
Abstract :
Pythium species are one of the most devastating soil-borne pathogenic of vegetable crops in the world, which has been known to cause seed rot, damping-off, root rot and collar rot at all stages including nursery and field. This review summarizes the existing information on the taxonomy, distribution, epidemiology, and economic importance of Pythium diseases of major vegetables such as tomato, chilli, brinjal, cucumber, capsicum, cabbage, cauliflower, onion and spinach. Soils, which are damp and poorly drained and nursery sanitation are always conducive to outbreak and even though the use of only a system of protection leads to increased productivity, it tends to increase the disease pressure by providing high humidity and limited drainage. Cultural practices and resistant cultivars, biological agents like Trichoderma and fluorescent pseudomonads, and chemical seed treatments are all looked upon with a critical eye on their effectiveness and constraints, especially the development of metalaxyl-resistant populations. The review proposes that there is no single tactic that would provide lasting control and that the most realistic way ahead is by integrating disease management which is based on proper molecular diagnosis and good nursery hygiene. Continued species-level surveillance gaps in the vegetable growing areas and field performance of biocontrol agents are cited as the areas of future research focus.
Keywords :
Pythium, Root rot, collar rot, seed rot, fungal infection etc.
