Development of integrated disease management (IDM) module for major diseases in bitter gourd

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2019 to devise and evaluate the six different integrated disease management (IDM) modules against major diseases in bitter gourd and its economics at Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (IIVR), Varanasi. The IDM module (T6) comprised of growing two rows of bajra as border crops, use of black silver polythene mulching followed by seed treatment with coordinated compound of carbendazim 12%+ mancozeb 63%@ 3 g/kg, drenching with captan 70 % +hexaconazole 5% WP @0.1% at 15 days after germination followed by sequential spray of imidacloprid 17.8 SL@ 7.5 ml/ 15 l + Neem oil 0.2%, captan 70 % +hexaconazole 5% WP @0.1%, imidacloprid 17.8 SL @7.5 ml/ 15 l + Neem oil 0.2% and fosetyl-Al @0.1% at 10 days interval from 30 days after sowing is validated as effective for bitter gourd disease management. Module was efficacious in reducing the incidence of mosaic and downy mildew diseases in bitter gourd with higher fruit yield. Though all IDM modules have lowered the severity of downy mildew and mosaic disease significantly over control, T6 have reduced severity of downy mildew by 27% and mosaic disease by 40% over the control. In addition, T6 has increased the yield by 2.46 times than control. Furthermore, highest cost benefit ratio of 1:2.1 has obtained in T6 IDM module against control (1:1.20). Also, module T6 has reduced the severity of powdery mildew and cercospora leaf spot disease in bitter gourd.