Powdery mildew of vegetable pea

 

Causal Organism: Erysiphe cichoracearum DC.

• Outbreak of this disease is associated with dry weather.
• The disease affects the crop between February to April.
• The disease develops late in season and reaches to maximum intensity at the time of pod formation.
• The early cultivars escape the disease.

Symptoms:

• It attacks leaves first producing faint, slightly discolourd specks from which grayish white powdery growth of mycelium and spores spread over leaf, stem and pod.
• The leaves turn yellow and die.
• The fruits do not either set or remain very small.
• It causes defoliation.
• Later stages, powdery growth also covers the pod making them unsuitable for marketing.

Control:

• Avoid late planting.
• After harvest, collect the plants left in the field and burn them.
• By formulation of wettable Sulphur such as Sulfex and Thiovit at 3 kg/ha
• Elosal 8 WP three time at 10 days interval
• Karathane (Dinocap- 0.05%), Dikar (Manocap), Mososide (Binapacryl) and Morestan (Quinomethionate)
• 0.03 % Calixin followed by Karathane (0.2%) and Bavistin (100 ppm)
• Grow resistant varieties like JP-83, PSM-5, JP-4, JRS-14 and Arka Ajit.
• There is need to develop cultivars resistant to powdery mildew because the disease is of common occurance. Some of them are P 185, and 6578 (immune to E. polygony), EC33866 as moderately resistant with 25% leaves infecting.