Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Pokkah Boeng disease is one of the most important diseases of sugarcane and is coming up as a serious issue of concern for sugarcane growers. Fusarium moniliformae variability persisting in different areas may have correlation with the severity of the disease prevalent in those areas. Therefore, a study was conducted to find out morphological variability of the isolates of pathogen in different sugarcane growing areas in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Twenty isolates of the Fusarium moniliformae from Kichha, Sitarganj, Khatima, Nanakmatta, Bazpur, Pantnagar, Jawahar nagar and Kashipur showed variation in colony characteristics, conidial shape and size, indicating the existence of variability among them. Colony texture of the isolates varied from fluffy profuse submerged to cottony and wide range of pigmentation pattern was observed. Macro conidia in different isolates ranged from 21.8- 8.74µm.