SURVEY FOR FUSARIUM WILT INCIDENCE OF TOMATO IN MAJOR CROP GROWING AREAS OF TELANGANA STATE

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicum esculantum Mill.), a “fruity vegetableâ€, native of Peru, South America, is a popular and widely grown vegetable crop cultivated
throughout the world. It is also known as poor man’s apple due to the availability of vitamin C, minerals (Fe and Cu) and antioxidants in moderate quantities with generally low dietary nutrients. It is an annual vegetable crop growing to a height of 1-3 m, with weak woody stem (Naika et al., 2005), bearing edible fruits belonging to the family Solanaceae having more than 3000 species. Tomato crop is affected by several diseases incited by organisms like fungi, bacteria and viruses etc., which affects plant growth and yield. Among the fungal diseases that affect tomato, Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (Sacc.), Snyder and Hans, is one of the most serious and destructive diseases across the world (Sheu and Wang, 2006) with severe economic loss wherever tomato is grown ( Sudhamoy et. al., 2009).