DISEASES OF MINOR

MILLETS

Presented
by
Dr. S. Parthasarathy,
Assistant Professor
Department of Plant Pathology
 Tenai
Foxtail millet
Setaria italica
Blast - Pyricularia seteriae
Rust- Uromyces setariae italica
Smut:Ustilago crameri
Downy Mildew: Sclerospora graminicola
Blast - Pyricularia seteriae
 Host :Finger millet, pearl millet, wheat
and Dactyloctaenium aegyptium.

Symptoms:
On leaves symptoms develop as small pin head water soaked yellowish
dot that turns spindle shaped within 2-3 days with greyish centre
surrounded by dark brown margin.

The spots coalesce and in severe form the leaves wither and dry up.
Infected node turns black and breaks at the nodal junction.
Favorable condition :
Excessive application of nitrogen fertilizers,
cloudy and drizzling weather or dew resulting in continuous leaf wetness
for more than 10 h,
night temperature between 15 to 24°C and
 relative humidity above 90 per cent.

Management:
Carbendazim 50 WP @1 g/litre or Ediphenphos 50 EC @1g/Litre of
water or combination product of Carbendazim + Mancozeb at the rate 1
g/litre water
 Rust- Uromyces setariae italica

Symptoms
 Numerous minute brown uredosori appear on both the sides of the leaf.
 Pustules arranged in rows
 Heavily infected leaves they cover almost the entire leaf blade. Pustules
produced on the leaf sheath, culms and stem. severe infection premature
drying of leaves and poor grain set are observed.
Pathogen :
The teliospores are single celled, pedicellate, oblong, globose, yellowish
brown, with smooth, thick walls, which are much thicker at the apex than
at the base. Only uerdial and telial stages known

Favourable condition : Low temperature and high relative humidity

Management
Spraying of Mancozeb at the rate 2.5 g/ litre of water
 Smut: Ustilago crameri

Symptoms :
The grain loss caused by the disease varies from 8-50 per cent of
the grain yield.
The fungus affects most of the grains in an ear producing sori
The sori are pale greyish in colour
When the crop matures, the sori rupture and produce dark
powdery mass of spores.

Pathogen : The spores are dark brown and angular or round in

shape and smooth wall

Mode of spread :The fungus is externally seed borne. Soil borne

Management : Steeping seeds in 2 per cent copper sulphate solution or 0.5

per cent formalin for about 30 minutes. Seed treatment with Carbendazim
at the rate 2 g/kg seed
 Downy Mildew: Sclerospora graminicola

Symptoms :
• Chlorosis of the seedling leaves. The terminal spindle fails to unroll, becomes
chlorortic which later turns brown and gets shredded.
• Whitish bloom of sporangiophores and sporangia of fungus are prominent on
the surface of leaves in humid conditions.
• Floral parts are proliferated into green leafy structures showing ‘green ear’
symptom. Convertion is partial or complete
Mode of spread
• The fungus is an obligate parasite.
• The primary infection is mainly soil or seed borne oospores
Secondary infection : Sporangia
Management :
 Collection and removal of infected plant debris
 Seed treatment with Metalaxyl at the rate 3 g/kg of seed
KUDIRAIVALI - Echinochloa frumentacea

(Barnyard Millet)

Head Smut: Ustilago crusgalli

Kernel Smut: Ustilago paradoxa
Leaf Spot or Blight- Helminthosporium crusgalli
Leaf blast- Magnaporthe grisea
 Head Smut: Ustilago crusgalli

Symptoms
T he infected inflorescence is deformed and destroyed.
In addition, the smut also produces gall-like swellings on the stem, the nodes of
young shoots and in the axils of the older leaves.
The gall-like swellings are covered by a rough membrane of host tissue rupture
and releases the smut spores
Smut spores are brown ,spherical and Echinulate.
Mode of spread: Externally seed borne
Management
Seed treatment with Carbendazim or Thiram at the rate 2 g/kg seed before
sowing.
 The variety PRJ 1 resistant to this disease
.Rouging of infected plants from the field is also helpful in reducing the spread
of disease.
 Kernel Smut: Ustilago paradoxa

Symptoms :
Only few grains in ear are infected. They are scattered and the affected
grains appear as greenish swollen bodies. The sori are round and the size
not exceeded the size of the normal grain.

Mode of spread: Externally seed borne

Management
Seed treatment with Carbendazim or Thiram at the rate 2 g/kg seed
before sowing
Leaf Spot or Blight- Helminthosporium crusgalli

Symptoms
Dark brown to grey in colour oval lesions and are surrounded by
yellow halo.
 Under humid conditions fungal growth is visible on these spots.
Similar spots can also be seen on the leaf sheath. The disease is most
common under humid conditions.

Mode of spread : Through seed

Management : Seed treatment with Carbendazim or Thiram at the rate

2 g/kg seed
 Proso Millet - Panicum miliaceum L.
Panivaragu

Head Smut: Sporisorium destruens

Grain Smut-Ustilago crameri
Leaf Spot: Helminthosporium panici-miliacei
 Head Smut: Sporisorium destruens

Symptoms
The entire inflorescence is modified into a sorus enclosed by a grayish-
white false membrane. The membrane ruptures as the plants mature,
exposing the dark-brown spore mass and the vascular tissues of the
smutted panicle.

Mode of spread: Externally seed borne

Management:
Seed treatment with Carboxin and Benomyl @ 2g/ kg of seed
 Grain Smut-Ustilago crameri

Symptoms
Most of the grains are transformed into white grayish sacs (smut sori).
The sori are slightly pointed to oval and filled with black powder.

Mode of spread : Externally seed borne

Management:
Seed treatment with Carbendazim or Thiram at the rate 2 g/kg seed
Collection and burning of diseased ears
Crop rotation for 2-3 years.
 Leaf Spot: Helminthosporium panici-miliacei

Symptoms :
• Infected leaves produced brown rectangular spot
• Seed infection causes seed rotting, coleoptile spot and seedling blight.

Mode of spread :Through seed

Management : Seed treatment with Carbendazim or Thiram at the

rate 2 g/kg seed
KODO MILLET- Varagu

Paspalum scrobiculatum
• Head Smut- Sorosporium paspali
• Rust: Puccinia substriata
• Ergot or Sugary Disease- Claviceps paspali
• Udbatta Disease: Ephelis oryzae. (Balansia oryzae sativae)
• Bacterial Leaf Streak: Xanthomonas sp
• Phanerogamic Partial Root Parasite - Striga spp
 Head Smut- Sorosporium paspali

Symptoms :
The entire panicle is transformed in to long sorus and covered by cream
coloured thin membrane. In some cases it is enclosed in the flag leaf and
may not emerge fully. The membrane burst open and exposes the black
mass of spores

Mode of spread :
The disease is mainly seed borne.

Management : Seed treatment with Carboxin or Thiram @ 2 g/ Kg

 Rust: Puccinia substriata

Symptoms :
The erumpent, oval, brown uredia are formed on the upper surface of the
leaf blade and on the leaf sheath. The brown coloured telia are formed on
the under surface of the leaf blade and on the leaf sheath

Mode of spread :
Uredia are present throughout the year on grass hosts and from where
they disseminate to the main cultivated crop.

Management:
Eradication of the grass hosts is partly useful in reducing the primary
inoculum
 Ergot or Sugary Disease- Claviceps paspali

Symptoms :
• The disease manifests time of panicle emergence.
• Majority of the spikelets in the panicle is affected.
• Pearly drops of honeydew oozing out from the infected spikelets
• The droplets are soon hardened into reddish brown crusts later turn
in to dark grey sclerotia

Management:
• Removal and destruction of infected panicles
 Udbatta Disease

Ephelis oryzae (Teleomorph: Balansia oryzae sativae )

Symptoms
• The affected panicles are transformed into a compact agarbatti like
shape, hence the name “Udbatta

Management:
• Removal and burning of affected panicles
• Keeping the bunds free from weeds that serve as collateral hosts seed
treatment with Carbendazim @2g/kg seed
 Bacterial Leaf Streak: Xanthomonas sp

Symptoms:
The disease manifests itself as pale yellow streaks measuring running parallel
to the veins of leaf. Later, the streaks enlarge turn brown. In severe infection,
the entire leaf withers away. The leaves may be shredded along the length.
Streaks may also be formed on shoots and peduncle of panicles.

Management:
Two foliar sprays of Streptomycin sulphate at the rate 300 ppm, first just
after the appearance of disease and subsequently after 15 days interval are
effective against the disease along with 2.5 fold increase in yield.
Phanerogamic Partial Root Parasite: Striga densiflora

Symptoms
The under-ground portion of Striga plant remain attached to the roots of host
plant by houstoria, from which the parasite absorbs water and nutrients. The
attacked plants are stunted with poor aerial growth and bear lanky panicles. If
the infestation occurs in early stage, the plants may dry up before flowering.

Management:
Weeding or hand pulling of Striga plants before flowering is the cheapest and
effective method for its eradication..
Little millet (Panicum sumatrense)
Formerly P. miliare
Rust :Uromyces linearis
Symptoms
Numerous, narrow, minute, brown pustules arranged in linear rows appear
on the upper surface of the leaves.
Pathogen :
The Uredia are brown and erumpent. The urediospores are brown, round,
echinulate. The telia are black in colour. The teliospores are thick walled,
smooth, globose, brown with persistant, long thick pedicels, fresh
urediospores germinate readily but not the teliospores.

Downy mildew : Sclerospora graminicola

Blast : Pyricularia grisea