Influence of plant age on resistance to Ascochyta rabiei in chickpea cultivars

Non-Peer ReviewedAscochyta blight of chickpea, which is caused by the fungal pathogen Ascochyta rabiei, can cause severe losses in yield and seed quality. When environmental conditions favour blight development, even resistant cultivars may become heavily infected (Nene and Reddy 1987). Plant age has no impact on disease reaction in susceptible cultivars (Trapero-Casas and Kaiser 1992). However, two previous studies of the reaction of resistant cultivars as the plants mature had conflicting results, with resistance increasing in one study and declining in the other (Hafiz 1952, Sattar 1933). The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of plant age on Ascochyta blight severity in partially resistant and susceptible chickpea cultivars adapted for western Canada