EFFECT OF LOWER NUMBER OF COMPOST TEA SPRAYS AND SEED TREATMENTS ON GROWTH PROMOTION, YIELD AND ON DISEASE MANAGEMENT IN POTATO (Solanum tuberosum L.) AND GROUNDNUT (Arachis hypogaea) CROPS: BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOST TEA INDUCED RESPONSE
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Date
2018-09-25
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UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES GKVK, BENGALURU
Abstract
Crop diseases like late blight of potato and tikka of groundnut cause extensive
yield losses globally. The excessive use of agrochemicals leads to environmental
pollution and health hazards, and thus development of alternative approaches of
biocontrol becomes important. One such approach is the foliar spray of ‘compost teas’.
Aerated and non-aerated fermentation are the two dominant approaches in preparation of
compost tea. Earlier study of Anil and coworkers, 2017, showed that, ten foliar sprays of
aerated compost tea in an integrated formulation helps in management of Late blight and
an enhancement of potato tuber yield. In this study we used the potato variety kufri jyoti
and groundnut varieties GKVK5, GKVK13 and TMV2 to evaluate the efficacy of
compost tea under field conditions. Five sprays of compost tea along with single spray of
fungicide and compost tea seed treatments showed higher biomass, yield (15%) and
lower disease severity in potato. In case of groundnut, five or ten sprays of compost tea
along with single fungicidal spray helps to manage tikka disease and enhances yield (15-
18%). Increased levels of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, phenols and flavonoids
indicated defense preparedness in compost tea treated potato and groundnut plants.
Compost tea fermented for four days, showed increased levels of proteins, superoxide
dismutase, phenols and flavonoids as compared to compost water. In-vitro study of
compost tea and compost tea bacterial isolates showed inhibition of pathogen, Ralstonia
growth. The results showed that compost tea based strategy is an effective biocontrol and
biofertilizer in potato and groundnut crops.