Effect of date of sowing and plant density on the progress of powdery mildew of pea

Powdery mildew (Erysiphe pisi DC ex Saint Amans) of pea (Pisum sativum L.), incited by fungus is an important limiting factor in its cultivation in mid hills of Himachal Pradesh. The field experiments were conducted during the winter season of 2004–05 to elucidate the effect of different sowing dates and planting densities on disease and yield of garden pea. The mid October sown crop despite of having maximum disease severity resulted in minimum apparent infection rate and highest yield of green pods, however, late november sown crop escaped the disease to a considerable extent but it also gave minimum green pod yield. Treatments having plant to plant spacing of 22.5 cm with row to row spacing of 60, 45 and 30 cm resulted in minimum mean disease severity and apparent infection rate, however, there was no significant difference in the pod yield per plot in different plant densities.