Management of mosaic disease in bottle gourd through botanicals

Symptom severity and the time of appearance of bottle gourd mosaic diseases in bottle gourd plants was delayed, if the aqueous root extract of Boerhaavia diffusa was sprayed weekly on to the leaves of bottle gourd plants since seedling stage. The incidence of bottle gourd mosaic disease was gradually reduced as the number of sprays with B. diffusa were increased. The maximum protection was observed in plants which received six sprays followed by five and four sprays. Three and less sprays were not found much effective. Plants treated with B. diffusa performed superior over controls regarding all the growth parameters like length of vine, number of primary and secondary branches, flowering and fruit yields. Active virus titre assayed from plants, treated with B. diffusa and subsequently infected with bottle gourd mosaic virus, revealed that high virus contents were present in control plants while a gradual reduction was observed in treated plants.