DISEASES OF GRAM

Diseases of Gram
 Wilt
 Collar rot
 Dry Root rot
 Ascochyta blight
 Botrytis gray mold
 Wilt ( Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri)
(Points to remember…)

• Most widespread disease of chickpea occurring in about 32 countries

• The disease is important between the latitudes 30 N to 30 S of the
equator where the chickpea-growing season is dry and warm and when
crop rotations are not practiced.
• Average yield loss is estimated to be 10-15% globally.
• The pathogen is a facultative saprophyte and can survive in soil on crop
residues as chlamydospores for up to six years. The pathogen is
internally seed-borne and soil-borne.
• Drooping of leaves with dull green color followed by the collapse of the
seedlings are the early wilt symptoms. Drooping of petiole, rachis and
leaves in the upper part of the plants, and internal discoloration
(browning of xylem vessels) are the typical wilt symptoms in adult
plants.
• Pea, pigeon pea and lentil are symptomless carriers of the pathogen.
• Seed treatment can eliminate seed-borne infection.
• Wilt resistant cultivars, e.g., ICCV2, are now being grown by the farmers
in India.
 SYMPTOMS
Leaves eventually take on a dull-yellow colour, wilt
and the plant collapses and dies

Wilting may initially affect only one side of the Internally, the xylem tissues stain dark-
plant. brown to almost black
Plants difficult to
uproot easily. No
microsclerotia
formed. Roots
generally healthy
and shows no sign of
rotting Infected
seeds are shrivelled
Causal organism : Fusarium oxysporum
fsp. ciceri
• Kingdom - Fungi
• Sub-division - Deuteromycotina
• Class - Deuteromycetes
• Order - Moniliales
• Family - Tuberculariaceae
• Genus - Fusarium
 Identifying characters
Mycelium : Extensive, hyaline,
often with some tinge of pink-purple Macro conidia
or yellow, septate, inter and
intracellular. Mycelium in
Conidiophores : Simple, xylem vessel
slender, short, aseptate or septate
formed in the sporodochia.
Conidia : Two types-
Macro-conidia - Boat shaped or
crescent, hyaline, long, pointed at
the tip, knotched at the base,
septate (3-5 septa), measure 25-
65x3.5-4.5µ.
Micro-conidia - Small, elliptical or
curved, unicellular or with one
septa, gathering in short chains or
in spore balls, hyaline, measure 5-
11x 2.5-3.5 µ.
Chlamydospores : Spherical, thick Micro conidia
walled, terminal or intercalary.
 Disease Cycle
 Fungus survives in the soil and infected
plant debris as microconidia,
macroconidia and chlamydospores.
 Infect the fresh plants in coming season.
 Favourable environment
• Excessive moisture and moderately high
temperatures (25-30°C) encourage disease
development.
• Acidic soil favours the development of
pathogen.
 Management
1. Use disease-free seed.
2. Avoid sowing when temperatures are high (late sowing).
3. Deep summer ploughing by MB plough
4. Soil solarization during summer months
5. Crop rotation for at least for four years.
6. In case of arhar, mixed cropping with Jowar reduces the wilt incidence.
7. Seed treatment with SAAF super @2.0 g or Captan 3.0 g/kg of seed.
8. Apply Trichoderma enriched FYM (1 q FYM + 1 kg. Trichoderma formulation
mix and keep for 20 days) in a acre for three consecutive years reduces the
wilt incidence.
9. Grow resistant varieties- No. 10, S 26, G 24, C 214, BG 244, Pusa 212, Avrodhi,
JG 315, JG 14, JG 11, JGK 2, KAK 2, Vijay, Vaibhav, JG 63, Birsa canna-3, WR
315, JG 74, JAKI 9218, Vihar, JG 1265, BG 1053, PDG 4, Gujarat gram 4, Gujarat
gram 1, BGM 47, COG 29-1, L55
 Collar rot ( Sclerotium rolfsii)
(Points to remember…)

• It is a widely prevalent disease and can cause considerable

loss to the plant stand when soil moisture is high and
temperatures are warm (30°C) at sowing time.
• The disease generally occurs up to six weeks after sowing
and the incidence decreases with the age of the crop.
• The disease is favored by the presence of undecomposed
organic matter on the soil surface and excessive moisture
at the time of sowing and at the seedling stage.
• Disease incidence is higher when chickpea is sown after
rice.
 Typical symptoms of Collar rot
• Drying plants whose foliage turns slightly yellow before death,
scattered throughout the field is an indication of collar rot infection
• Most often, collar rot is seen at the seedling stage (up to 6 weeks
after sowing), particularly if the soil is wet.
• Affected seedlings turn yellow. Young seedlings may collapse, but
older seedlings may dry without collapsing. Leaves do not droop.
When uprooted, the seedlings show rotting at the collar region and
downwards. The rotten portion is covered with whitish mycelial
strands .
• A white mycelial coating can be seen on the tap root of completely
dried seedlings, even several days after death.
• If affected seedlings are uprooted from moist soil in the earlier
stages of infection, rapeseed-like sclerotia (1 mm in diameter),
attached to mycelial strands around the collar are seen.
 Typical symptoms of Collar rot

Yellowing of leaves and constriction at the White mycelial strands of Sclerotium

collar region. rolfsii on root system.
 Management
• Avoid high soil moisture at sowing and
seedling stage.
• Adopt wide row spacing.
• Remove all undecomposed organic matter
while preparing seedbed.
• Soil solarization during summer months.
• Seed treatment with captan/thiram 3gm/kg of
seed
 Dry root rot ( Rhizoctonia bataticola )
(Points to remember…)
• Favored by high temperature (>30°C) and soil
moisture stress. moisture stress (dry
conditions) at the reproductive stages favor
the dry root rot disease development in
chickpea crop Symptoms most commonly
observed at flowering to pod formation stage
DRR manifests symptoms from flowering to
podding growth stage Drooping of petioles
and leaflets are the characteristic symptoms
Leaves and stems of affected plants
becomes straw colored When uprooted, the
lower portion of the tap root remains in the
soil DRR can be diagnosed by dark tap root
and no lateral roots Dark, minute sclerotia
can be seen on the infected roots. The
susceptibility of the plant to the disease
increases with age.
Symptoms of dry root rot disease of
chickpea (a) field symptoms, (b) dry
root rot infected plant, (c) rotting of
root system, (d) and (e) minute
sclerotia inside the exposed root
 Management
• Avoid drought.
• Sow on time so that crop escapes hot
weather.
• Seed treatment with captan/thiram
3gm/kg of seed
 Botrytis gray mold
• Lack of pod setting is the first indication.
• Under favourable conditions, foliage shows symptoms and
plants often die in patches.
• Shedding of flowers and leaves, covered with spore mass can
be seen.
• Lesions on stem are 10-30 mm long and girdle the stem fully.
• Tender branches break off at the point where the gray mold
has caused rotting.
• Affected flowers turn in to a rotting mass.
• Lesions on the pod are water-soaked and irregular.
• On infected plants, the pods contain either small, shriveled
seeds or no seeds at all.
 Causal organism : Botrytis cineria

• Kingdom – Fungi
• Sub-division - Deuteromycotina
• Form Class – Deuteromycetes
• Form Sub class - Hyphomycetidae
• Form Order – Moniliales
• Form Family – Moniliaceae
• Genus - Botrytis
Identifying characters
Mycelium : Septate,
inter and intra cellular,
branched, white at first and
dark later on.
Conidiophore : Erect, tall,
branching irregularly or
dichotomously, dark,
septate.
Conidia : Hyaline or tinted,
aseptate and globose to
ovoid, produced as grape
bunch like fashion, size -
11-15 x 8-11 um.
Disease cycle
 Management
• Use disease-free seed and destroy infected debris.
• Deep ploughing, adopt late sowing and wider row spacing.
• Avoid excessive vegetative growth.
• Intercrop with linseed.
• Avoid excessive irrigation. Use compact varieties.
• Deep summer ploughing
• Reduce plant density and increase in air passage between the
plants.
• Seed treatment with Carbendazim + Thiram (1:1) @ 3g/kg of seed
is recommended
• Spray the crop with Captan 5 - 6 kg/ha at 15 days interval.
• Spray of Carbendazim @ 1.5g/lit or Mancozeb @3 g/lit of water.
• Resistant Cultivars: BG 276, GL 90159, GL 91040, GL 91071 and
GL 92162
 Ascochyta blight
• The disease can cause grain yield and quality losses up
to 100%.
• The disease is usually seen around flowering and podding
time as patches of blighted plants in the field.
• Symptoms are seen on all above-ground parts of the plant.
• Initially, emerging seedlings develop dark brown lesions at
the base of the stem. Affected seedlings may collapse and
die(damping off).
• The disease initially appears in the form of several
small water-soaked necrotic spots on the younger
leaves of almost all branches.
• Symptoms on leaves appear as small circular brown
spots with brown margins and a gray center that
contains pycnidia, which are often arranged in
Ascochyta blight
symptoms on
chickpea plant
(a) Severe AB
infection on all
aerial parts
(b) Lesions on leaf
and pods
(c) Lesions on green
pods usually round,
up to 0.5 cm in
diameter,
(d) Pycnidial bodies
arranged in
concentric rings
• Under favorable conditions, these spots enlarge
rapidly and coalesce, blighting the leaves and buds.
• The lesions are elongated on stems and petioles.
• 3 - 4 cm long on stems and often girdle the
affected portion and usually break at the point of
girdling.
• In case of severe infection, the entire plant dries up
suddenly.
• Late infections result in shriveled and infected seeds.
• The disease is seed borne in nature.
• Left over debris in the fields serve as a source.
• Wet and warm weather, and dense crop canopy are
conducive to the spread of the disease
 Ascochyta blight in field

Patches of Ascochyta blight infected plants Girdling and breaking of branches

 Late infections results in
shriveled and infected
seeds. The fungus
penetrates the pod and
infects the developing
seed. Symptoms on the
seeds appear as a
brown discoloration and
a. Healthy seeds b. often develop into
Infected seeds with deep, round or irregular
Ascochyta blight cankers, sometimes
bearing pycnidia.
Disease spread and dissemination
• AB is a seed borne disease.
• Diseased debris left over in the fields also serves as a
source of primary inoculum.
• Ascospores found to play a role in the initiation of
disease epidemics. Secondary spread is through
Secondary infection by conidia disseminated by rain
splashes, wind, insects and other agents .
• Chickpea and its wild relatives.
 Favorable conditions for disease
development
• Cool, cloudy and wet weather strong winds
favors the disease development.
• The disease builds up and spreads fast when
night temperatures are around 10°C, day
temperatures are around 20°C, and rains are
accompanied by cloudy days.
• Excessive canopy development also favors
blight development.
Causal organism : Ascochyta rabiei
Perfect stage : Mycosphaerella

• Kingdom - Fungi
• Sub-division - Deuteromycotina
• Form Class - Deuteromycetes
• Form Order - Shaeropsidales
• Form Family -
Shaeropsidaceae
• Genus - Ascochyta
 Identifying characters
Mycelium : Septate,
branched, inter cellular,
hyaline
Pycnidium : Globose,
brown, with ostiole,
produced below epidermis,
later erumpent, 140-200 µ in
dia.
Conidia : Hyaline, smooth,
thin walled, one septate,
cylindrical to irregular,
rounded to flattened apex and
rounded to truncate base,
10.0-16.0 x 3.5 µ in size
 Disease cycle
• Pathogen survives as pycnidia on
diseased plant debris and also on seeds
served as primary inoculum for infection.
• Secondary infection by conidia
disseminated by rain splashes, wind,
insects and other agents .
 Favourable enviornment
• Wet weather
• Strong winds
• Temp. 22-260C
• Epidemic in high rainfall during the crop
season.
 Management
• Sow late.
• Remove and destroy dead plant debris.
• Sow deep (15 cm or deeper).
• Wider row spacing adopt low seeding rate
• Intercrop with wheat, barley, mustard. Bury diseased debris 10 cm or
deeper.
• Sow disease-free seed.
• Follow rotation crop.
• Seed treatment with Carbendazim @ 1g/kg of seed/ Calixin M®
(tridemorph + maneb) @ 3 g/kg of seed
• Spray the crop with Mancozeb @ 2.5g/lit, Chlorothalonil @2 gm/lt. if
noticed during the growth period or Wettable sulphur at the rate of
2.5g/lit of water.
• Grow resistant varieties- F8, C 12/34, C 235, G 543, H 75-35, GG
688,GNG 146,Gaurav, BG 261, GG 588, Hima chana-1, Gaurav,
Vardan, Samrat, PBG 1 and BG 261