Evaluation of Different Botanicals Against Sclerotium rolfsii Causing Collar Rot Disease of Lentil

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is an important pulse crop in semiarid regions of Iran, India, Turkey and Canada and originated in the fertile crescent of the Near East and dates back to the beginning of agriculture itself. Lentil suffer from attack of number seed borne diseases such as vascular wilt, collar rot, root rot, stem rot, rust, powdery mildew and downy mildew, which are caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lentis, Sclerotium rolfsii, Rhizoctonia solani, Uromycis fabae, Erysiphe polygoni and Peronospora lentis, respectively. Among the diseases, foot and root rot of lentil caused by Sclerotium rolfsii are common and the most severe disease. The fungi can attack the crop at any stage from seedling to flowering stage and are comparatively more destructive at the seedling stage. The effect of phyto extracts of nine plant species were tested in vitro by poisoned food technique to know their inhibitory effect on the growth of Sclerotium rolfsii. Significantly minimum mycelium growth was recorded in Curcuma longa (39.25 mm) while maximum mycelium growth was observed in Ricinus communis (90.00 mm).