introduction
Potato is an important crop grown throughout the year in India. Potato is used in some form in almost all families.
Potato is a short-term crop. Due to the high amount of starch, carbohydrate, protein, vitamin C and mineral water in it, it is considered a good tool to solve the problem of malnutrition. Weeds, pests and diseases in potato crop cause a loss of 42%.
Potato cultivation in India is around 2.4 lakh hectares. Today’s annual production has increased to 24.4 lakh tonnes. At present, India ranks fourth in the world on the basis of potato acreage and fifth on the basis of production. Potato crop gets the most damage due to scorching diseases.
Lung disease
The disease spreads due to Phytopathora salt fungus. Potato-aggravated pandemic disease is extremely destructive. The terrible famine of Ireland, which took place in the year 1945, was the result of this disease destroying the entire potato crop.
This disease attacks potato leaves, branches and tubers in both the plains and hilly areas of Uttar Pradesh. When there is less moisture and light in the atmosphere and it rains for several days, then its infestation starts from the rainy leaves till the plant.
This disease destroys the green leaves of plants within 5 days. On the lower surfaces of the leaves are white colored balls, which later turn brown and black. Due to the sickness of the leaves, the size of potato tubers is reduced and production decreases. For this, a temperature of 20–21 ° C is appropriate. The humidity helps to increase it.
Management
- Spraying of Bodrex mixture or floaton should be done to prevent outbreak of fungus on potato leaves.
- Dissolve 10 grams of a fungicide called Metalloxyl in 10 liters of water and immerse the seeds in it for half an hour and then dry it in the shade after treatment.
- In potato crops, fungicides such as mangozeb (75 per cent) 0.2 per cent or chlorothalonil 0.2 per cent or metalexyl 0.25 percent or propionb 70 per cent or diethane Z78, diethane M45 0.2 per cent or ballitox 0.25 per cent. Spraying should be done per hectare.
Early inflammatory disease
This disease is caused by a fungus called Altneria solanai. This is a common disease of potatoes, which causes maximum damage to potato crop.
The symptoms of this disease appear in the form of small, far-apart angular-shaped rashes or spots on the lower leaves of the plant before the pruning pimples, ie, 3-4 weeks after sowing the crop, which is followed by the deep greenery of the fungus. Are covered by growth.
These spots grow rapidly and also form on the upper leaves. Initially these point-shaped spots grow rapidly and soon become triangular, round or oval.
As the size increases, the color of these spots also changes and later they turn brown and black. In the dry season, the spots become hard and spread in the moist weather to merge, forming large areas.
When there is a tremendous outbreak of the disease, the leaves shrink and fall to the ground and brown black marks are formed on the stems of the plants. The disease also affects potato tubers. As a result the tubers remain small in size.
Management
- After potato digging, the waste of the diseased plants left in the field should be collected and burnt.
- It is a land borne disease. Conidiums of the fungi causing this disease remain in the soil for 1 year to 15 months, so a 2-year crop cycle should be adopted.
- Urea should be sprayed @ 1% and Mancozeb (75%) @ 0.2% per hectare in case of outbreak of disease in the crop.
