Fungicidal management of Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissler causing blight of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii H. Bolus ex J.D. Hook)

Alternaria, the fungal pathogen has wide host range generally attacks the aerial parts of plants causing leaf spots and blights. Gerbera is a genus of ornamental flower plants. Gerbera plants are infected by many diseases. Different disease management practices are adopted in gerbera cultivation. The fungicidal management of Alternaria blight is one of the important strategies for the disease management in gerbera in polyhouse condition. In this study, preventive and curative fungicidal sprays were adopted for the management of blight disease in polyhouse. This study revealed that preventive fungicidal sprays were significant over curative fungicidal sprays for the management of Alternaria alternata blight of gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii H. Bolus ex J.D. Hook) in polyhouse. The preventive sprays made of Bordeaux mixture (0.6 %), tricyclazole (0.1%) and iprodione + carbendazim (0.1%) fungicides were found effective with 95.85 %, 96.59 % and 95.88 % disease control respectively, under polyhouse condition