Karan Singh, Pokhar Rawal, Amit Trivedi, N.L. Meena4, Devendra Jain, R.H. Meena and B.L. Behati
Abstract
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important vegetable crop grown throughout the world because of its wider adaptability, high yielding potential and suitability for variety of uses in fresh as well as processed food industries. Among all fungal diseases, early bight / leaf blight/ Alternaria blight disease of tomato is one of the widest spread and devastating disease occurring worldwide. It is caused by several species of Alternaria including Alternaria solani, A. tomatophila as well as A. alternata. The present study was undertaken to detect the major pathogen involved in Alternaria Blight in Tomato in Rajasthan. The considerable variation in characteristics symptoms of the blight disease can be seen on all plant parts i.e., on stem, twigs, leaves, fruit etc in the field condition. For the laboratory experimental studies, standard potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium was used for the isolation and culturing pathogenic fungi. Because of cultural characteristics of fungus was identified as Alternaria alternata is prominently involved in Alternaria Blight of Tomato in Rajasthan. The pathogen was inoculated through conidial suspension (1 x 106 spore/ml) for testing pathogenicity.