INVESTIGATION ON SEED HEALTH STATUS OF CUCURBITS FOR STORAGE MANAGEMENT

Abstract

An investigation was carried out on the seed health status of selected Cucurbits seed and evaluate the efficacy of some selected chemicals against the seed borne pathogens. The experiments were carried out in the seed health laboratory of the Department of Plant Pathology, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University during the period from July 2016 to June 2017. Five selected cucurbit seeds namely Sweet gourd, Bottle gourd, Cucumber, Ridge gourd and Snake gourd were collected from five different locations of Dhaka city viz. Siddik Bazar, Mohammadpur Bazar, Kochukhet Bazar, Savar Bazar and BADC seed store (Gabtoli). Four different chemicals viz. Dithane M-45, Autostin 50 WDG, Tilt 250 EC and Salicylic acid were assayed in the experiment. During the investigation, five fungi were identified as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Rhizophus sp., Fusarium sp., Chaetomium sp. and two unidentified fungi were also isolated from seed. Dry inspection revealed that the cucurbit seeds collected from Siddik Bazar yielded significantly the highest 400seed wt. (68.19 g), the highest infected seed wt. (22.37g) and the lowest inert matter wt. (0.22 g) while the Ridge gourd showed the highest 400-seed wt. (110.27 g) and the Cucumber yield the lowest infected seed wt. (3.71 g) and the lowest wt. (0.27 g) of inert matter. The interaction of cucurbits seed and sources of collection showed that the highest seed germination was recorded in Sweet gourd seed collected from Siddik Bazar (L1S) while the lowest seed germination was recorded in Ridge gourd seed from Mohammadpur Bazar (L12S). The incidence of seed borne pathogen isolated and identified from the seed varied significantly in respect of collected areas and cucurbit species. As per the efficacy of the chemicals evaluated in the experiment, the highest performance was showed by Tilt 250 EC followed by Autostin 50 WDG against isolated fungi.