Three new fungal diseases from India

During systematic survey of parasitic fungi of Faizabad (U.P.), the authors observed leaf spot disease of Desmodium gyrans (Cercospora canescens), Phragmites communis (Alternaria tenuissima) and a foot rot disease of Coriandrum sativum (Torula herbarum f. quaternella) caused by fungi given in the parenthesis. The specimen has been deposited in the Herbarium, Commonwealth Mycological Institute, Kew, England and a part of the collection has been deposited in the Mycological Herbarium, Botany Department, K.S. Saket Post-Graduate College, Faizabad. Symptoms of each disease are briefly given below. 

1. Leaf spot disease of Desmodium gyrans:

The disease was confined to the lower surface of the leaves. Spots were diffused, irregular, light brown to black, scattered all over the leaf surface, however, the vein areas being heavily infected. On the basis of detailed morphological characters the causal organism was identified as Cercospora canescens Ell. & Mart. 

Collected from Gokul Sadan, Ayodhya, Faizabad, March 1973, IMI 181834.

2. Leaf spot disease of Phragmites communis:

The plants were infected to various degree. The infection was more severe on younger parts of the growing tips of aerial shoot including leaves. The apical portion was damaged which ultimately died. The older leaves showed black to brown spots of irregular size on outer surface of leaf sheath and on lamina. 

The detailed morphological characters revealed the the fungus responsible for the disease was Alternaria tenuissima(Kunze ex Pers.) Wiltshire.

Collected from Nayaghat, Ayodhya, Faizabad, Feb. 1976, IMI 209295.

3. Leaf spot disease of Coriandrum sativum:  

 The disease started as greyish patches scattered here and there on stem and older leaves. Later on the entire plant was involved including flower and fruits. Severely infected plants in advanced stage showed wilting and final rotting. 

Microscopic studies on diseased part of the plant revealed that Torula herbarum (Pers.) S.F. Gray f.quaternella Sacc. was the causal organism. 

Collected from Rsam Kote, Ayodhya, Faizabad, Feb. 1976, IMI 209326.

So far, none of the above mentioned diseases have been recorded from India (Butler and Bisby, 1954; Mukerjii and Juneja, 1974; Tondon and Sudhir Chandra, 1964; Tilak and Rao, 1968), and these are thus new diseases of concerning plants from India.  

Cited this as: Kanaujia R.S., Kishor R. and C.S. Singh (1978): Three new fungal diseases from India. Acta Botanica Indica. 6: 92-93.

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मेरी कलम 06:33  No comment

A new Aspergillus storage rot of Mandarin orange in India

Apparently, the fruits appeared quite normal. When ring was removed, a thick mycelial mat was found along with the heavy sprouting of conidia of the fungus particularly at the placental region. The infection gradually penetrated the deeper regions of the fruit and within 5-6 days entire fruit was involved and become rotten. The pathogenecity tests gave positive results. The fungus was cultured on PDA and identified to be Aspergillus aculeatus Iiz. Earlier A. aculeatus has not been found on Citrus reticulata fruits causing soft rot in India. The specimen has been deposited at the Department of Botany, K.S. Saket P.G. College, Faizabad as Accession No. RSK -306.

Cited this as:  Kanaujia R.S. (1979): A new Aspergillus storage rot of Mandarin orange in India. Indian Phytopathology. 32(4): 620-621.

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मेरी कलम 02:15  No comment

A Modified Approach in Substrate Preparation Technique for Small Scale Oyster Mushroom Farming

Aims: Cultivation of oyster mushrooms has increased vastly in a global scale during last few decades. Contaminants and indigenous microflora present in the substrate may led to the low productivity of mushrooms. Keeping this in mind, the present study was under-taken with slight modification in substrate preparation technique to eliminate dust particles from the substrate and to assure contamination free mushroom production. 

Study Design: Comparative evaluation between modified approach and control beds. 

Place and Duration: The study was carried out in Shri Laxman Prasad Pyare Lal Agro Products, Ayodhya during 2017. 

Methodology: The wheat straw substrate was immersed in the drum containing tap water, mixing properly and allowed to stand for 10-15 min to settle down the dust particle in the bottom of drum. After that, the floating substrate was transferred to the slant surface so that the extra water was decanted off. This substrate was put in to the steam sterilized gunny bag and steeped in the chemical solution consisting of Formaldehyde (500 ppm) and Bovistin (75 ppm) for 18 h.  For the control, fresh wheat straw was put in to the steam sterilized gunny bag and steeped directly in the chemical solution as suggested above. After removal of excess water, the substrate was used for spawning with inoculums of Pleurotus sajor-caju, Strain- Malaysia. 

Results: Beds with modified approach showed complete absence of contaminants during entire crop cycle which showed the effectiveness of modified method while beds treated as control showed little incidence of various contaminants viz., Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus fumigatus, Curvularia sp., Penicillium sp., and Rhizopus stolonifer with 6.67-20.00 percent incidence. 

Conclusion: The results revealed that modified method should be considered to contamination free mushroom production. (PDF)

Cite this as:  Siddhant, O.P. Ukaogo and S.S. Walakulu Gamage (2018). A Modified Approach in Substrate Preparation Technique for Small Scale Oyster Mushroom Farming. Asian Journal of Agricultural and Horticultural Research. 2(2): 1-5.

     

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मेरी कलम 06:21  No comment