Effect of seed treatment and foliar spray on spot blotch of Barley

Field trials on barley cultivars, PL426 and PL 807 were conducted during the year 2018–19 and 2019–20 to evaluate the relative efficacy of different fungitoxicants and bio-control agent in controlling the foliar blight of barley caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana under artificial epiphytotic conditions. In cultivar PL426, maximum disease control i.e. 85.81% and 84.47% was recorded in treatments carboxin + thiram @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray and carboxin @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray, respectively followed by 83.09% disease control in treatments of tebuconazole @ 1 g/kg seed & propiconzole @ 0.1% spray. Maximum per cent increase in yield (72.13%) was recorded in treatment carboxin + thiram @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray followed by 68.23% in carboxin @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray. In cultivar PL 807, all the treatments reduced the disease significantly over control. Maximum disease control of 82.80% was recorded in treatments carboxin + thiram @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray, whereas the disease control of 81.93%, 79.66% and 77.29% was recorded in treatments of carboxin @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray, tebuconazole @ 1 g/kg seed & propiconzole @ 0.1% spray and azoxystrobin @ 2 ml/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray, respectively. Similarly, maximum per cent increase in yield (58.00%) was recorded in treatment carboxin + thiram @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray followed by 51.00% in carboxin @ 1.5 g/kg seed & propiconazole @ 0.1% spray. In both the cultivars, the treatment with Trichoderma based bio-formulation was least effective in managing this disease with 25.30% and 23.44% disease control in PL 426 and PL 807, respectively. Thus, the seed treatment with carboxin + thiram @ 1.5g/kg seed combined with foliar spray with propiconazole @ 0.1% proved most effective in managing spot blotch of barley.