Chemical management of damping-off (Pythium ultimum) disease of tomato

Damping-off (Pythium ultimum Trow) is an important disease of tomato in mid hills of Himachal Pradesh which is a major impediment in raising healthy seedlings. Keeping this in view, recently available and conventional fungicides were evaluated under in vitro and pot house conditions both as seed treatment and soil drenching for the management of this disease. In vitro evaluation revealed that Apron XL, Curzate M8, Metal, Ridomil Gold and Sectin were found most effective at all concentrations evaluated and caused complete mycelial inhibition and were statistically at par with each other. These fungicides were further tested as seed treatment and drench application against pre-emergence and post-emergence phase of the disease under pot conditions. Maximum seed germination and minimum pre-emergence damping-off were recorded in seeds treated with Metal, Ridomil Gold, Curzate M 8 followed by Sectin and Apron XL while, maximum reduction in post-emergence damping-off was observed in Apron XL, Curzate M 8, Metal, Ridomil Gold and Sectin.