Diseases Management in Chilli or Capsicum Cultivation
Diseases Management in Chilli or Capsicum Cultivation
Diseases of Chilli:
1) Damping Off:
It is a serious disease of brinjal seedlings and mainly occurs in nursery bed. The disease infected seedlings rot at ground level and then the plants fall over ground. The seedlings die in patches.
Control Measures:
1. The seed bed should be treated with Formalin before sowing of seeds.
2. The seeds should be treated without water (30 minutes at 520 C) or Cerasan or Agrosan G.N. before sowing of seed.
3. The seedlings in the nursery should be sprayed with any fungicides at a regular interval.
2) Bacterial Leaf Spot:
Small dark, greasy spots are formed on leaf, petiole and tender parts, of the plant. Water soaked spots appear on green fruits. In severe cases the leaf may drop off arid cause considerable loss to the crop.
Control Measures:
Spraying Agrimycin – 100 k at 200 ppm plus copper oxychloride 0.3 per cent controls the disease effectively.
3) Anthracnose:
Dark sunken spots are formed of fruits and pink or dark coloured dots appear in the centre of the sunken spots. Due to this spots, the fruits rot and fall. The fungus may cause "Die back" of the twigs also. Die back disease attacks mainly the upper portion of the plants spreading gradually from the top to downward; as a result the branches dry up. Moist weather, shade and heavy dew favour the occurrence of the disease.
Control Measures:
The control measures are the treatment of seed with Cerasan before sowing, removing and burning of attacked plants or branches and spraying the disease affected crops with Mancozeb (Dithane M-45) @ 2.5 gm per litre of water.
4) Leaf Curl:
The disease affected leaves becomes small in size accompanied by downward curling. The leaves may fall off in case of sever attack. The disease usually spreads through insect vectors such as thrips and aphids etc.
Control Measures:
Control of insect vectors by spraying the crop with Dimethoate (Rogor -30 EC) or Monocrotophos (Monocil) @ 1 ml per litre of water indirectly helps to check the spread of this disease.