Two new diseases on carrot seed crop in dry temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh

Off-season cultivation and seed production of temperate/European carrots are becoming more popular among farmers of higher hills located in dry temperate region of Himachal Pradesh. In this regard some genotypes of European carrots were introduced in Vegetable Research Station, Kalpa, district Kinnaur during 2007-08 for cultivation and seed production. On the seed crop especially on cultivar Early Nantes two new diseases one causing root rot and other causing inflorescence blight were recorded during 2009-10. On the basis of the morphological characters of the fungal pathogens associated with the diseases these were identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib) de Bary causing root rot and Alternaria dauci (Kuhn) Groves and Skolko causing inflorescence blight. Both the diseases are reported for the first time from the dry temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh