Efficacy of Systemic Fungicides on the Incidence of Fusarium oxysporum, Seed Germination and Seedling Vigour Index of Mungbean

Abstract

Mungbean is an important summer pulse, which has a demand in the domestic market as well as good potential for trade and export. The production of mungbean has adversely affected by many fungi, which infest seeds. The present study was taken up on the effect of systemic fungicides on seeds of mungbean naturally infected by seed mycoflora, and artificially inoculated by Fusarium oxysporum. Seeds of mungbean from two different storage sources were tested for seed-borne fungi. Paper towel method, standard blotter paper method and agar plate method were used to isolate seed-borne fungi, among which standard blotter paper method was found to be the best. Seeds from traditional storage were found to be more infested with seed-borne fungi in comparison to seeds in commercial packs from the market. Among isolated fungi species, four dominant species such as Fusarium oxysporum, Curvularia lunata, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger and Among them Fusarium oxysporum was taken for treatment. Out of seven tested systemic fungicides, Carbendazim (50% WP) @ 1.5 g/kg of seed was found to be most effective, with the lowest incidence of F. oxysporum (5.00%) and maximum reduction in the incidence (92.30%) with maximum seed germination (90.00%) and the highest increase in seed germination over control (39.08%) and highest with maximum seedling vigour index (1651) and the highest increase in SVI over control (36.64%). In naturally infected seeds, the seed treatment with fungicides Carbendazim (50% WP) @ 1.5 g/kg was found most effective with significantly highest seed germination (87.48%) and having highest seedling vigour index (1612) and its maximum increase in SVI over control (31.51%).