Authors:P. Sharada, O. K. Remadevi* and H. C. Nagaveni
Abstract:Dendrocalamus brandisii (Munro.) is one of the economically important bamboo species, the culms of which are used for building house, baskets and decorative articles. The edible young shoots are used in food items. The germination percentage is reduced due to the problem of fungal infection in seed stages which can further cause diseases in the nurseries and sometimes at plantation stages. Adopting standard techniques, fungal species associated with the seeds were evaluated. Total 38 species of seed borne fungi were encountered, of them the major species were Alternaria, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Colletotrichum, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Fusarium, Mucor, Penicillium and Rhizopus along with few non-sporulating fungi. Of the total isolates, species of Alternaria were the common fungal isolates in both blotters and agar plate techniques. Agar plate method showed more fungi than blotter method. In vitro control studies were conducted by disinfecting the seeds using fungicides (0.12% of Dithane M-45, Captaf, Blitox, Bavistin and Emisan) and leaf and bark extracts of Prosopis juliflora (0.1, 0.5 and 1%). Dithane M-45 and Captaf were most effective and 1% leaf extract of P. juliflora showed complete inhibition of seed borne fungi
Keywords:D. brandisii, disinfection,seed mycoflora,Prosopis juliflora extracts and fungicides