Plant Disease Management/Control

“The solution of control to problems is the ultimate purpose

of a distinct science of plant pathology." - J. C. Walker, 1957

"All the academic duties, reading, teaching and research, in

a plant pathologist's life have one central purpose, and that
is to control plant diseases.“ – F. L. Wellman, 1971

F.R. Harper (1969) coined the term "phytiatry" to describe

the practical application of plant pathology in areas such as
diagnosing, curing, preventing, or alleviating disease in
plants.
 Methods of Plant Disease Management
Methods of disease management are nothing but translation of principles of
disease management at practice level i.e. executing or following the principles
Practical translation of principles into methods takes place through various
measures such as: They aim to produce healthy plants rather than
I. Cultural Practices simply to control plant pathogens (Dixon 1984)
II. Biological Control They alter the environment, the condition of the
III. Use of Chemicals & host, and/or the behaviour of the causal agent, to
IV. Induction of Resistance economically achieve a measure of disease control

I. Cultural Practices
Management of plant diseases through cultural practices involves the principles of
avoidance, exclusion and eradication

Basis of Cultural Practices: Suitable cultural practices modify the environment in

such a way that is not favourable for the pathogen but favourable for the hosts

Salient Features of Cultural Practices: i) mainly preventive ii) precautions taken

under avoidance are mainly cultural practices iii) many cultural practices act
against the pathogen through a system of biological control iv) many practices
reduce the density and activity of the inoculum
 Ways or means of cultural practices
There are three ways along with their subways of achieving the cultural practices
1. Production and Use of Disease –Free Propagating Materials
2. Adjustment of Crop Culture to Minimize Disease Incidence
3. Field and Plant Sanitation
1. Production and Use of Disease –Free Propagating Materials
First and important step
Disease free propagating materials can be produced and used by following the
eight practices mentioned below
i) Dry climate for seed production: Seed borne diseases are favoured in wet
climate. To avoid seed borne diseases seeds can be produced in dry climate.
e.g. Anthracnose of bean caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum and Black
rot of cabbage caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris can be
avoided by producing the seeds in dry climate
Reasonably good dry climate can be created in wet areas through
management of crop canopy facilitating air circulation and entry of sun rays
ii) Isolation distance for seed plots: Separation of seed plots from
neighbouring commercial crops, which act as source of inoculum, helps in
production of healthy seeds.
iii) Inspection of seed plots: An important step. Eradication of diseased plants
or plant organs immediately follows the inspection
iv) Drying and ageing of seed: Some seed borne pathogens can not tolerate
drying of seeds e.g. Peronosclerospora sacchari causing downy mildew of
maize. Its mycelium collapses when the seed is properly dried before storage.
In some cases viability of seeds is longer than the pathogen present in them
and because of this reason prolonged storage often eliminates the pathogen
from the seed e.g. Fusarium solani f.sp. cucurbitae causing fruit rot of
cucurbits.
v) Cleaning of seed: Sclerotia & oospores of many fungal pathogens and
cockles or cysts of nematodes present in debris mixed with the seeds can be
cleaned e.g. Ergot and smut of pearl millet, white blisters of crucifers, cyst
nematode of sugarbeet and ear cockles of wheat. Cleaning can be done either
by hot air blast that removes dust also or by hand cleaning. In hand cleaning
the seed is submerged in a 20% common salt solution. The debris and
nematode cysts or cockles floating over the surface can be removed by hand.
vi) Thermal and Chemical treatment of seed: Chemical seed treatment is
mandatory in certified seed production. Thermal treatment of seed is
preferred in cases where the pathogens are deep seated and thus away from
ordinary protective fungicides. However, many systemic fungicides can reach
the internal tissues of the seeds. e.g treatment of wheat seeds with vitavax
and thiram, hot air or hot water treatment of sugarcane seed materials, bare
root dip treatment of seedlings with nematicides.
 vii) Site and treatment of nursery bed: It is done for such diseases which are
being carried over by seedlings and grafts prepared in nurseries. To avoid such
diseases site should be selected away from the infested fields and nursery soil
should be periodically treated with chemicals or heat. e.g. Club root of
cabbage, root knot of tomato, citrus gummosis, viral diseases of horticultural
crops.
viii) Adjustment of harvesting time of the crop: Time of harvesting affects
cleanliness and thus the disease status of the seed. Grain crops should be
harvested in dry weather as in wet weather they produce contaminated seeds.
Harvesting of potato should be avoided when the leaves are green as in this
stage there is more chances of tubers getting contaminated by the blight
pathogen i.e. Phytophthora infestans.

2. Adjustment of Crop Culture to Minimize Disease Incidence

Modifications or adjustments of crop culture such as crop rotation, choice of
crops, method of planting, fertilizer application, application of organic
amendments etc have been found to provide satisfactory control of plant disease.
Under this heading there are fourteen practices which control plant diseases or
minimize the incidence of such diseases.
i) Crop rotation: Most of the soil borne diseases can be significantly reduced
by crop rotation such as wilt diseases of pigeonpea, chickpea, pea, cotton, red
rot and wilt of sugarcane etc.
Crop rotation: Success of crop rotation for disease management depends on
proper selection of crops in the sequence. Crops selected for growing
between the susceptible host crops should either be non-host crops or be
host crops resistant or immune to the respective diseases.
Root exudates of intervening crops should not favour the survival of the
pathogen, whether directly or indirectly.
Vegetables can be rotated with cereals
Cereals can be rotated with legumes
ii) Fallowing: Keeping the land fallow (i.e. uncultivated) for some time also
affects plant diseases. It can also be the part of rotation. Because of economic
consideration, it is often not accepted.
Deep ploughing in summer exposes spores to the sunlight and birds and thus
they get damaged, displaced or loose their potential to cause diseases to the
coming crops
Flood fallowing (uncultivated land filled with water) or wet rice culture
(where water level is maintained throughout the crop season) have been found
effective in the management of Fusarium wilt of banana and root knot
nematodes
It is not recommended in general crop culture
iii) Monoculture: It excludes diversity and introduces element of danger in
crop-disease system. In fact it acts as a system of perpetuating the diseases.
Monoculture: In addition to helping the pathogen survival, it also increases the
chances of evolution of new biotypes of the pathogen through selection
pressure.
Monoculture favours the most soil borne pathogens.
In case of monoculture of cotton wilt disease of cotton caused by Verticillium
albo-atrum and V. dahliae increases @ 600% year and gradually cultivation
becomes impossible.
iv) Mixed cropping: Mixed cropping is different from intercropping
Intercropping is not so effective in disease reduction as mixed cropping.
Mixed crops of pigeonpea and sorghum give significant reduction in the
incidence of Fusarium wilt of pigeonpea. Mechanism: Roots of sorghum exude
HCN which is highly toxic to the pigeonpea wilt fungus i.e. Fusarium udum
Mixed cropping of wheat or barley with legumes such as chickpea or pea,
there occurs the reduced spread of rusts.
Cotton wilt gets controlled when it is grown with mothbean.
Mixed crops should be carefully chosen because sometimes, when the mixed
crop directly or indirectly favour a pathogen of the main crop, the incidence of
the disease gets enhanced rather than getting decreased.
v) Adjustment of date of sowing: Suitable adjustments/alterations in dates of
planting or sowing cause significant reduction of many diseases.
Adjustment of date of sowing: Alterations in sowing dates enable the crops to
escape the critical period of disease incidences.
Advancing the planting date of groundnut to June or even earlier allows the
crop to escape the damage caused by leaf spots or tikka disease (caused by
Cercospora arachidicola and Cercosporidium personatum).
In South India, rice sown from January to June develops no more than 5%
leaf blast and 1% neck blast. In July planted crop the incidence increases to
20% and 25%, respectively.
In North India when pea and chickpea are planted early (in October) they
suffer heavily from root rot and wilt (a complex of Fusarium, Rhizoctonia and
Sclerotium) because high temperature and high soil moisture prevailing during
the period favour these pathogens.
vi) Adjustment of depth of sowing/seeding: Varying the depth of sowing
enables the host to avoid the pathogen.
Sowing at shallow depth reduces damping off of seedlings.
Stripe disease of barley, head smut of maize and grain smut of sorghum is
favoured by deep placement of seeds as it gives the pathogen more time to
invade the seed and seedlings.
However, deep sowing has also been found to reduce the infection of
chickpea by Ascochyta rabiei
vii) Plant spacing-rate of sowing and density of stand: Plant spacing affects
disease through underground closeness of roots for soil-borne pathogens and
aerial closeness i.e. dense canopy for pathogens causing foliar diseases.
Dense canopy provides shade, increases humidity under the crop, delays
drying of soil under the plants, prevents aeration & radiation and thus lowers
temperature. These conditions favour most foliar diseases such as downy
mildews, late blight, damping off etc.
Dense crop canopy results from close planting, high N doses, time of
planting and varietal characters.
To avoid damping off in nursery one should avoid close seeding.
In grapes, to avoid downy mildew (caused by Plasmopara viticola) and bunch
rot (Botrytis cinerea) proper training of vine and removal of excess leaves are
being followed. These practices help in maintaining proper air circulation and
penetration of light which reduce humidity and thus reduce the diseases
significantly.
Verticillium rot of cotton and brown rot of soybean (Cephalosporium
gragatum) get reduced in dense plant population because the increase in the
number of plants per unit area reduces effective inoculum per plant.
Tomato leaf curl virus (transmitted by white fly Bemisia tabaci) and Cucumber
mosaic virus (transmitted by Aphis craccivora) are less severe in crowded
planting than in spaced planting.
viii) Management of irrigation: Excess irrigation directly affects the activity of
the pathogen and/or disease incidence through the effect on host.
Incidence of common scab of potato is prevented by maintaining soil
moisture near field capacity during tuberization. High soil moisture at
tuberization increases the activity of antagonistic bacteria on the lenticels.
High soil temperature resulting from water stress induces the attack of
charcoal rot disease of potato caused by Macrophomina phaseolina. Irrigation
lowers the temperature, removes the stress and the disease is checked.
Frequent but low quantity of watering is recommended for avoiding
damping off.
Sprinkler irrigation generally favours the foliar diseases by increasing leaf
wetness and by dispersing propagules of the pathogen by water splashes.
Excess irrigation increases guttation on leaves. Guttation drops contain
nutrients that favour pathogens like Helminthosporium and many bacteria.
Irrigation should be avoided when the pathogen is at its most active phase
i.e. when it is likely to attack the host. Karnal bunt of wheat is getting favoured
during high humidity at flowering. Therefore, irrigation of wheat at flowering
should be avoided.
ix) Management host nutrition: Often suitable modifications in fertilizer doses
or exogenous application of micronutrients reduce disease severity.
Application of nitrogen more than the normal dose or requirement of the
crop causes new succulent vegetative growth of the plant and delays maturity.
Pathogens that attack new vegetative growth are favoured by high level of
nitrogen
The late blight of potato is severe when due to high dose of nitrogen – crop
canopy is dense.
False smut (Ustilaginoidea virens), blast (Pyricularia grisea), sheath blight
(Rhizoctonia solani), bacterial leaf blight (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae)
diseases of rice are favoured by heavy doses of nitrogen
Micronutrients deficiencies are common in all types of cultivated plants
Zn deficiency causes Khaira disease in rice
Balanced nutrition/fertilization restores the plants to their normal health
x) Management of soil acidity and alkalinity: Soil pH affects the incidence and
severity of plant diseases.
Within the pH range of 5.2-8.0 severity of common scab of potato (caused
by Streptomyces scabis) increases with pH. The disease is significantly
deceased if the soil pH is brought down to below 5.2
In clubroot of crucifers (caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae) raising the soil
pH above 7 by adding lime provides good control of the disease.
xi) Organic amendments of soil: In addition to provide nutrition orgnaic
amendments increases the diversification of microflora in the soil including
rhizosphere which in turn helps in the management of diseases.
Green manuring with soybean reduces common scab of potato.
xii) Management of the top soil: Mulching or covering of top soil with
materials from non-related crops helps in reducing plant diseases. These
mulches release inhibitory substances in the underlying soil and also promote
development of parasites and predators of nematodes.
Shaping the top soil into ridges or beds is a useful means in plant disease
management. Ridges reduce the incidence of Sclerotium rolfsii on many
vegetables and groundnut.
Heat treatment of soil upto the cultivated depth is also management of top
soil. Soil solarization is a technique for treatment of soil by solar heat, It is a
hydrothermal treatment. Under this, moistened soil is covered with
transparent polythylene film of about 25 µm thick during summer to prevent
dissipation of the trapped solar heat and raises the soil temperature,
sometimes by 13 °C. Increased temperature kills most fungal, bacterial and
nematode propagules.
xiii) Minimizing influx of inoculum from neighbouring crops: Attempts of
various means should be taken to reduce the influx of inoculum from
neighbouring fields, particularly in case diseases like, leaf curl of tomato,
downy mildews of cucurbits and crucifers, late blight of potato etc.
xiv) Choice of crop variety: Choice of one or more varieties of any crop resistant to
a disease but not susceptible to other diseases is always desirable.

3. Field and Plant Sanitation

It is a main part of disease management through cultural practices. It is essential
even if other cultural practices have been followed. Field and plant sanitation is
being followed by means of nine practices.
i) Management of crop debris: Destruction of infected crop debris which not only
serves as medium of survival for the pathogens but also for their multiplication
which in turn increase the quantity of incoulum.
 Destruction of crop debris checks false smut & sheath blight of rice, downy
mildews of maize, sorghum, pea, grapevines; ergot disease of cereals and
pearlmillet.
ii) Management of the diseased plant: Roguing is practice of regular removal of
diseased plants from a population. It is an important sanitary precaution and is
effective in reducing the amount of initial inoculum and spread of diseases.
 It is the major means of managing the viral diseases.
 Loose smut of wheat, red rot of sugarcane, wilt of pigeonpea and cotton, smut
of sugrcane and downy mildew of sorghum and maize are other diseases
where roguing is recommended.
 Destruction of dormant parts of plants serving as source of inoculum checks
diseases e.g. Downy mildew of grapes caused by Plasmopara viticola.
iii) Management of irrigation water: Checking the transfer of inoculum from
diseased to healthy plants by means of irrigation water checks the spread of
diseases.
 Managing irrigation water can stop the transfer of sporangia of Phytophthora
and Pythium in papaya, conidia of red rust fungus (C. falcatum) – checks these
disease.
iv) Crop-free period and crop-free zone: Pathogens attacking crops of secondary
importance and having a narrow host range can be controlled by maintaining a
crop-free period of definite duration.
 Absence of host causes starvation and elimination of pathogen and thus
controls the respective diseases e.g. bunchy top of banana.
v) Creating barriers by non-host and dead hosts: Presence of non-host roots
creates a barrier between the two.
 Bacterial wilt of banana (Ralstonia solanacearum) and spreading decline of
citrus (Radopholus similis) are controlled by destroying the healthy plants
around the diseased plants.
vi) Decoy crops, trap crops and antagonistic crops: Decoy crops or cover crops are
non-host crops sown with the purpose of making soil-borne pathogens waste
their infection potential before the susceptible main crop is grown. In absence
of host crops the dormant propagules are activated which finally go in vain.
 Rye-grass acts as decoy crop in crucifers and checks the infection of P. brassicae.
Decoy crops, trap crops and antagonistic crops: Trap crops are highly susceptible
crops of the pathogen planted to attract it but destined to be harvested or
destroyed before the pathogen completes its life cycle. These crops are effective
in checking the populations of root knot nematode, cyst nematode and
Orobanche.
 Antagonistic or enemy crops are non-host crops of the pathogen that produce
some toxic compounds that directly destroy the nematodes in soil. Some
grasses, certain varieties of mustard, marigold etc act as enemy crops.
vii) Management of weed, collateral and volunteer host plants: These crops carry
over the pathogens from one season to next and also provide a base for
multiplication of inoculum.
 Powdery mildew of cucurbits, smut disease of sugarcane, many viral diseases
(such as diseases caused by geminiviruses) etc can be controlled by removing
such plants.
viii) Management of insect vectors: Insect vectors also act as source of inoculum
and thus by managing such insect vectors respective diseases are checked.
Many viral diseases are being controlled by managing their insect vectors.
ix) Harvesting time and practices: Diseases like bunt and flag smut of wheat,
potato cyst nematodes, phanerogamic plant parasites such as dodder and
Orobanche, late blight of potato are spread during harvesting. Proper time and
practice check the spread of these diseases.