Plant Disease Research

Kinnow is one of the most important fruit crops and its cultivation is considered to be a highly paying proposition in the Punjab State. In recent years, tremendous loss in yield and quality of this fruit crop has been observed due to various fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. Kinnow is propagated vegetatively by grafting, therefore use of healthy bud wood source is very important. Keeping this in view, major citrus growing areas of the state were surveyed for the inspection of nurseries and bud wood source during the year 2008. These included 18 nurseries in district Hoshiarpur, 21 in Ferozepur, 3 in Gurdaspur and 3 in Faridkot district. Out of total 45 nurseries. only 8 nurseries were having separate mother blocks for bud wood and rough lemon root stock. Phytophthora infection was observed to be a major problem in district Hoshiarpur. Citrus greening was found in traces in 50% of the nurseries surveyed. The problem of citrus nematode in soil samples was upto 27% of the nurseries. In the district Ferozepur citrus canker infection ranging from 4–70% was the major problem. Phytophthora infestation and citrus nematode in soil samples were upto 38 and 43 per cent, respectively. In the Gurdaspur distict, 2 out of 3 nurseries were having 100 per cent citrus canker and scab incidence and Phytophthora infection was also seen in the kinnow plants. In the district Faridkot, major problem was of citrus canker(40%) and Phytophthora infection was also upto 5% in the plants.