Effect of Various Sowing Dates on the Management of Wilt of Guar (\u3cem\u3eCyamopsis tetragonaloba\u3c/em\u3e L.)

Cluster bean [Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub.], commonly known as guar, is a member of Leguminosae (Fabaceae) family. It is a short duration, drought resistant, low investment and high return cash crop. In Punjab, it is one of the important legume crop grown on about 9514 ha with production of 0.24 million ton (Anonymous, 2013). It can be grown in mixture with bajra and jowar but pure crop of guar supplies highest tonnage of palatable nutritious green fodder for longer duration without much deterioration in quality with the age of the crop. It is rich in nutrients with crude protein content and total digestible nutrients on dry matter basis of 18.1 and 60.0 per cent respectively. Besides fodder, it can also be grown for grain, green manure, cover crop and for vegetable purposes. Although, cluster bean being a hardy crop is very sensitive to the biotic and abiotic stresses. The crop has succumbed to number of diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses. Of the all diseases, wilt of guar (Fusarium caeruleum) is a very serious disease. It causes heavy losses in summer sown crop and damage is visible on young plants. Attacks of the Fusarium wilt pathogen can destroy the crop completely. Modification of the soil environment by altering sowing dates and introduction of resistant genotypes can be effective control for Fusarium solani EGY 1causing wilt in guar