Antifungal Bioefficacy of Organic Inputs Against Fungal Pathogens of Bell Pepper

Five organic inputs namely panchgavya, vermiwash, biosol, cow urine and butter milk were evaluated against major pathogens of bell pepper namely Colletotrichum capsici, Phytophthora nicotianae, Sclerotium rolfsii, Fusarium solani, Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. capsici, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Rhizoctonia solani under in vitro and in vivo conditions. Under in vitro conditions, all inputs were tested at five concentrations ranging from 2.0 to 10.0 percent. Among these inputs, fermented cow urine showed maximum 100 and 99 percent inhibition in the mycelial growth of the test pathogens at 10 percent concentration followed by panchgavya exhibited complete mycelia inhibition of S. sclerotiorum and 99.0 percent inhibition in mycelia growth of S. rolfsii, F. solani and P. nicotianae. Similarly, vermiwash and biosol showed moe than 99.0 percent mycelia inhibition of all tested pathogens. Whereas, comparatively less inhibition was observed in case of fermented butter milk. Under in vivo conditions, all organic inputs were evaluated individually and in combinations against foliar pathogens and soilborne pathogens of bell pepper separately. Among all treatments, a combination of panchgavya (5%) + fermented cow urine (5%) caused maximum 87.02 percent control of phytophthora blight followed by anthracnose (85.22%) when applied as foliar spray at 15 days interval. Whereas, biosol (5%) + fermented cow urine (5%) showed 83.91 percent disease control of anthracnose. In case of soilborne diseases, drench with panchgavya (5%) + fermented cow urine (5%) exhibited maximum 88.04, 84.98 and 84.25 percent disease control of fusarium wilt, stem rot and root rot respectively.