UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, RAICHUR

DEPARTMENT OF PLANT PATHOLOGY

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, RAICHUR

SEMINAR-II

On

"Advances in biology and management of pomegranate bacterial blight"

 

 

Rajani B. Gamanagatti                                                                                                   DATE: 06-11-2009

PGSO8AGR 4873                                                                                                   TIME: 3.15 PM

     SYN0PSIS

 

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is an ancient and important fruit crop of subtropical and tropical regions of the world. Although native of Iran and adjoining areas, pomegranate has been widely cultivated through out India and Mediterranean regions of Asia, Africa and Europe. India is the largest pomegranate growing (1.3 lakh ha) and producing (11 lakh tonnes) country of the world followed by Iran with an area of 56,239 ha and production of 7.05 lakh tonnes.

Bacterial blight is one of the most devastating diseases of pomegranate occurring in major pomegranate growing states of India. The disease has not been reported from other parts of the world. Bacterial blight has been observed damaging the pomegranate crop in moderate to severe proportion resulting in enormous losses in the states of Maharastra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In Maharastra major districts affected by the disease are Solapur, Sangli, Osmanabad, Pune, Nasik, Latur, Aurangabad, Jalna and Ahmednagar. In karnataka Bagalkot, Gadag, Koppal, Bellary, Chitradurga, Bijapur are main blight affected districts.

Bacterial blight was first reported in India from Dehli (Hingorani and Mehta, 1952). Subsequently, it was reported from Karnataka (Hingorani and Singh, 1959), Himachal Pradesh (Sochi et al., 1964), Hariyana (Kanwar, 1976), Maharastra (Dhandar et al., 2004 Sharma et al., 2008).  

Ramesh et al., (1991) reported 60-80 % yield loss due to blight in Karnataka. Ravi kumar et al., (2006) revealed 20-90% disease severity in Bijapur and Bagalkot districts. Similarly 71.14 %   severity was reported in Bellary district (Yenjerappa et al., 2004). The survey of 82 pomegranate orchards in Maharastra revealed that bacterial blight was observed up to 100% severity in some orchards (Anonymous, 2007)

Ravi kumar et al., (2006) reported that sprays with streptocycline (500 ppm) + copper oxy chloride (2000 ppm) (33.3%) when compared with control (78.5%) after 8^th spray. The maximum mean yield of 9.3tons/ha was recorded in streptocycline (500 ppm)+ copper oxy chloride(2000 ppm) followed by 8.50 tons/ha in bromopal (500 ppm)+copper oxy chloride (2000 ppm) the untreated check yielded 2.95 tons/ha. Manjula et al., (2003) reported that paushamycin (500 ppm), sterptocycline (500 ppm) and K-cycline (500 ppm) were very effective in controlling the bacterial blight of pomegranate.

Bacterial blight is becoming very severe which is responsible for killing of most of the pomegranate trees in the country. It is an airborne bacterium and also spread through the use of planting material. It is difficult to root out the disease unless and until a mass eradication measures are taken up throughout the country with the help of department, university, growers. Pomegranate crop should be taken only after 3-4 years after planting; pruning should be done in August to September in order to get lesser severity and with less number of sprays.

 

Reference

 

• Anonymous, 2007, NRCP at a glance published by National Research Center on pomegranate (ICAR), Kegaon, Solapur- 413 255, Maharastra, India.
• Dhasandar, D. G., Nallathambi, P., Rawat, R.D. and Sawant, D.M., 2004, Bacterial leaf and    fruit spot.A new threat to pomegranate orchards in Maharastra. J. Mycol. Pl. pathol., 34 (3): 971.
• Hingorani, M.K. and Mehta, P.P., 1952, Bacterial leaf spot of pomegranate. Indian phytopath., 5: 55-56.
• Hingorani, M.K. and Singh, N.J., 1959, Xanthomonas punicae sp. now on Punica granatum. Indian J. Agric. Sci., 29:45-48
• Kanwar, Z. S., 1976, A note on bacterial disease of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) in Haryana.  Haryan  J. Hort Sci., 5: 177-180.
• Manjula, C. P., Khan, A. N. A., Jalikop, S. H. and Ravikumar M. R., 2003, Chemical and biological management of pomegranate caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae. In: Paper presented in national seminar on integrated plant disease management and sustainable agriculture held at Annamalai University during Mar. 20-21, 2003.
• Ramesh, C., Ram, R. K., Chand, R. and Kishun, R., 1991, Studies on bacterial blight (Xanthomonas campestris pv. punicae on pomegranate. Indian phytopath., 44 (3) : 370-381.
• Ravi Kumar, R., Shamarao Jahagirdar., Yenjereapp, S.T. and Patil, H.B., 2006 Epidemiology and management of bacterial blight of pomegranate caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae paper presented in the 1^st international symposium on pomegranate and minor Mediterranean fruits held at Adana, Turkey from 16-17, October 2006.
• Sharma, K.K., Jyostana Sharma., Jadhav, V.T. and Ram Chandra, 2008, Bacterial blight of pomegranate and its management. Indian Phytopath., 61 (3): 380-381.
• Sochi, H. S., Jain, S. S., Sharma, S. L., and Verma, B.R., 1964, New Records Of Plant Diseases From H.P. Indian Phytopath., 17 :42-45.