Evaluation of Different Botanicals and Biological Agents to Control Cercospora Leaf Spot of Indian Spinach in Field Condition

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at the experimental field of Plant Pathology and Seed Science Department, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh to estimate the efficacy of botanicals and biological agents to control Cercospora leaf spot disease of Indian spinach. In the field experiment, four treatments like as T2: Custard apple leaf extract (1:2 w/v), T3: Neem leaf extract (1:2 w/v), T4: Biskatali leaf extract (1:2 w/v), T5: Mahagoni leaf extract (1:2 w/v) were used as seed treatment along with another two treatments like T1 : Trichocompost (2 kg/m2) and T6 : Decomposed cowdung (2 kg/m2) which were used as soil treatment before sowing. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications.  The four treatments of leaf extracts were also used with concentration 1:4 (w/v) as spray solution in field condition. The lowest disease incidence (28.9%) and disease severity (14.4%) were found in treatments Tı (Trichocompost) and gave best result in term of yield (8.9 t/ha). Treatment T4 (Biskatali leaf extract) and T6 (decomposed cowdung) also gave satisfactory result in yield and found effective to control Cercospora leaf spot of Indian spinach compared to other treatments. The results of the present studies suggested that, use of biological agents (Trichocompost) and botanical treatments especially Biskatali leaf extract has ability to minimize Cercospora leaf spot disease and increase yield of Indian spinach.