Vinod KumarSupritha C.T.2022-01-072022-01-072017-11https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810180515A field experiment was conducted at the Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Southern Regional Research Station, Dharwad during kharif 2016 to identify the suitable harvesting stages and laboratory experiment was conducted in the Department of Seed Science and Technology and Plant Pathology to study seed mycoflora and its management on seed yield and quality in guinea and Brachiaria grasses. Experiment one was laid out in simple RCBD with eight treatments i.e. seeds harvested at every alternate day from 6th day to 20th day after panicle emergence and replicated thrice. In second experiment, nine treatment combinations of fungicides and bio-agents were tested. The results revealed that treatment T8 (seeds collected at 20 days after panicle emergence (DAPE)) produced more number of panicles (23.75 and 51.19) and number of racemes per panicle (96.40 and 3.41) in guinea and Brachiaria grasses, respectively. On the contrary, number of seeds per panicle (5717) were highest in treatment T1 (seeds harvested at 6 DAPE) in guinea grass and treatment T6 (180.32) in Brachiaria grass. The treatment T5 (seeds harvested at 14 DAPE) in guinea grass and T6 (seeds harvested at 16 DAPE) in case of Brachiaria grass produced maximum seed yield per panicle and seed yield per hectare (3.48 g and 0.53 g and 103.90 kg/ha and 138.90 kg/ha, respectively). The treatment T8 recorded highest germination (28.83 % and 12.00 %) and vigour index (415.1 and 180.1) in guinea and Brachiaria grasses, respectively. Among the fungicides and bio-agents used, seed treatment with (Psudomonas fluorescens) recorded highest germination (33.52 %), seedling vigour index (510.27) and lowest seed infection (13.73 %) in guinea grass whereas, in Brachiaria grass, significantly highest seed germination (18.11 %), seedling vigour index (277.46) and lowest seed infection (25.86 %) was recorded in seed treatment with Carboxin + Thiram and was significantly superior over other treatments.EnglishThesis