Epidemiology of strawberry anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) in Punjab: an agrometeorological approach

Development of strawberry anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) vis-à-vis weather conditions was studied at PAU, Ludhiana during 2015–16 on Chandler variety from January to March. The disease started its initiation in the first agrometeorological week of January and showing continuous increasing trend till 12^th agrometeorological week in March. The temperature between 22–28°C, relative humidity 63–96 per cent, rainfall 8–36 mm and rainy days 1–3 were more conducive while temperatures <8°C and > 30°C were unfavourable for the disease development. However, maximum disease severity (28.0%) noticed in March when temperature between 11.86–23.9°C, relative humidity 61.0–94.0 per cent, rainfall 8.2–36.2 and rainy days 1–3 prevailed. Minimum temperature (+0.745), maximum temperature (+0.857), rainfall (+0.441) and rainy days (+0.354) were positively correlated whereas humidity was negatively correlated with disease development. The correlation was significant with temperature. A multiple regression model was also computed for disease prediction by exploiting the prevailing weather parameters. The predicted disease severity was closely associated with the observed disease severity.