Evaluation of different fungicides against the leaf spots of eucalyptus, mulberry, mango and jamun in the nursery

In India eucalyptus has been found to be attacked by number of pathogens like Cylindrocladium spp., Cercospora eucalypti, Pestalotiopsis spp., Alternaria alternata, Gloeosporium sp., Colletotrichum sp. and other foliar pathogens (Mohanan and Sharma 1986, Sehgal, 1978, Rattan and Dhanda 1987). Anthracnose of mango caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz. is quite serious in the nursery causing grayish brown leaf spots which may coalesce to cover larger area of the leaf and tissue gets dry and shred. Grey blight of mango caused by Pestalotiopsis mangiferae (P. Henn.) Stey. is prevalent in India in many states. Different fungicides were tested against the leaf spot diseases of eucalyptus, mulberry, mango and jamun in the nursery. The plants sprayed were one to one and half year old growing in the polybags, at the Punjab forest department nurseries, at Baddowal, Doraha, and Phillaur, Ludhiana during the year 2005. Dithane M-45 (0.3%) gave 100 per cent control of damage of photosynthetic area due to Eucalyptus leaf spots, along with lowest defoliation of 9.9 per cent. In rest of the treatments leaf damage was very minimal and it varied from 0.02 to 1.25 per cent only and defoliation varied from 21.5 to 24.6 per cent whereas in control the corresponding figures were 34.03 and 49.0 per cent, respectively Bavistin 50WP (0.1%), Tilt 25EC (0.1%), Dithane M-45 (0.3%), Blitox 50WP (0.3%) proved highly effective in checking the Cercospora leaf spots disease of mulberry. Against the mango leaf spots all the fungicides tested gave significant reduction of disease as compared to control. The minimum leaf area damage i.e. 0.18% was recorded with Dithane M-45 (0.3%) + Bavistin (0.1%), followed by Tilt (0.1%), Dithane M-45 (0.3%), and Bavistin (0.1%) i.e. 1.30, 1.66 and 2.16 per cent, respectively.