Frequency of fungi isolated from cracked and intact seeds of maize variety R9902 by using blotter method under unsterilized and sterilized conditions

Maize is the main cereal crop of Asian countries. Its demand is increasing day by day as a food and fodder. Numerous seed mycoflora are known to affect the seed size, colour, starch content which ultimately reduce the maize grain yield. Total 49 species belonging to 19 genera were isolated from unsterilized cracked seeds by blotter method out of which whereas 19 species belonging to 11 genera were isolated from unsterilized intact seeds. The number of microflora was reduced when the seeds were surface sterilized with 0.1% solution of mercuric chloride and only 17 species belonging to 10 genera could be isolated from cracked seeds and 15 species belonging to 10 genera from surface sterilized intact seeds. This indicated that the minimum frequency was obtained from surface sterilized cracked seeds