Integrated management of soft rot of ginger in Northeastern hills of India

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a valuable cash crop in the northeastern hill of India and rhizome rot incited by Pythium aphanidermatum is a highly destructive in all the ginger growing areas of Mizoram. Incidence of soft rot disease recorded in the state varied from 7.23 to 40.26% and 5.23 to 34.84% in 2012 and 2013, respectively. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of integrated module of chemicals and non-chemicals against soft rot disease of ginger at ICAR-RC for NEH Region, Mizoram Centre, Kolasib, during 2012 and 2013. The pot culture study revealed that the highest germination percent (92.0 and 87.0%), least soft rot incidence (9.6 and 13.2%) and maximum yield (172.03 and 169.43 g/plot) were recorded in the treatment T3 i.e. treatment of rhizomes with fungicides, pyraclostrobin [strobilurins 20% at 0.2% for 30 min, followed by soil drenching with copper oxychloride (blitox 50 W) at 0.3%] for three times starting with disease initiation at 20 days interval. The two years field study indicated that rhizome treatment (T4) in hot water at 47 °C for 30 min and soil application of Trichoderma harzianum at 2.5 kg/50 kg FYM/ha, followed by three drenching of copper oxychloride (0.3%) was most effective in limiting the incidence of soft rot (19.29%) on ginger besides having their significant response in improving the growth and yield (41.90 q/ha).