Effect of different chemicals on seedling mortality and root rot in American cotton

Cotton suffers from various fungal diseases of which root rot caused by Rhizoctonia bataticola (Taub.) Butler, is a major disease leading to complete death of plant rapidly. This disease has gained importance in recent years due to increase in area of cotton in irrigated areas. Considering the importance of disease, the present investigation was carried out to evaluate different fungicides as seed treatment in delinted seeds, in order to improve the germination, plant growth and to eliminate the seedling infection in cotton plants. Five different types of fungicides were used as seed treatment (penflufen + trifloxystrobin, penflufen 240FS, trifloxystrobin 500SC, Vitavax Power, Emisan + Streptocycline) at different dosages in Kharif 2014 and 2015 at PAU, Ludhiana. Among all the fungicides minimum seedling mortality was found in Emisan+Streptocycline @ 50+25 g/ml/100 kg seed (18.6%) and minimum incidence of root rot was observed in penflufen+trifloxystrobin@ 300 g/ml/100 kg seed (11.6%). So both these chemicals will be helpful in management of seedling mortality along with root rot under field conditions in American cotton. Based on the findings it is concluded that the seed treatments with, Emisan+Streptocycline and penflufen+trifloxystrobin effectively improved seed germination, checked the seedling mortality and root rot in the present day cultivated Bt cotton hybrids with high cost of seeds.