Efficacy of fungicides in controlling post-harvest blue mould rot of kinnow mandarin

An experiment was conducted to evaluate nine fungicides of different groups against Penicillium italicum under in vitro conditions and further explored their efficacy in controlling the incited blue mould rot. Systemic fungicides were found to be more effective as compared to non-systemic against the growth of the test pathogen as well as incited rot. Prochloraz proved significantly superior over rest of the fungicides tested in respect of inhibition of mycelial growth of the test pathogen and checking of fruit rot development where cent per cent growth inhibition was observed even at lower concentration (5 ppm) and achieved complete control of rot incidence when fruit dipped in solution at 500 ppm in both pre- and post-inoculation treatments. Carbendazim was found to be the next in superiority providing 70.93 per cent inhibition of growth at 5 ppm concentration and gave complete protection against the rot incidence at 1000 ppm in both pre- and post-inoculation treatments followed by a combination of carbendazim 12% + mancozeb 63% that exhibited 57.97 per cent inhibition in growth of the test pathogen and retarded the incidence of rot to the extent of 87.95 and 84.02 per cent, respectively in pre- and post-inoculation treatments at same concentrations. Fungicides were found to be more efficacious when applied as pre-inoculation rather than post-inoculation treatments. Moreover, fruit rot incidence correlated positively with incubation period thereby incidence at 6^th DAI (Day after inoculation) was noted significantly higher to 3^rd DAI.