EFFECT OF SOWING TIMES AND ORGANIC SOIL AMENDMENTS ON FOOT AND ROOT ROT DISEASE OF LENTIL CAUSED BY SCLEROTIUM ROLFSII

Abstract

In vitro and in vivo experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of sowing times and organic soil amendments for the management of foot and root rot of lentil caused by Sclerotium rolfsii at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from October 2019 to March 2020. Six different sowing times viz. 25 October, 5 November, 15 November, 25 November, 5 December and 15 December and nine organic soil amendments viz. poultry refuse, mustard oil cake, neem oil cake, vermicompost, cowdung, trichocompost, biochar, sawdust and ash were assessed against the disease. Susceptible variety BARI Masur-1 was used in this experiment. In pot experiments, the lowest disease incidence was recorded in seed sowing on 15 December (15.22%) at 60 days after inoculation (DAI) where the highest disease incidence was recorded in seed sowing on 25 October (49.67%) at same DAI. In case of soil amendment, the lowest disease incidence was recorded in Trichocompost (8.96%) applied pot where the highest incidence was in control (57.65%) pot at 60 DAI. In all cases, growth parameters viz. germination (%), plant height (cm), no. of branch, vigor index and other yield contributing characters were the highest in seed sowing on 15 December and in Trichocompost treated pot. In field experiment, Trichocompost showed the best result with lowest disease incidence (11.11%) and the highest yield (170.11 g/m 2 ). However, the highest disease incidence (58.89%) with the lowest yield (74.44 g/m 2 ) were recorded in control plot. From the above findings, pre-sowing soil application with Trichocompost with late seed sowing after first week of December is recommended to manage foot and root rot of lentil disease.