Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a species of the family Solanaceae. It is herbaceous, annual to perennial, prostrate and sexually propagated plant with bisexual flower. Tomatoes are attacked by many kinds of plant pathogens such as fungi, bacteria, nematodes, viruses and viroid. Among bacterial diseases, bacterial soft rot devastates many important crops of the family Solanaceae particularly potato, eggplant and tomato, causing a huge decrease in yield and a greater loss in produce than any bacterial disease known. Yield losses due to post-harvest diseases of fruits and vegetables range from 20 to 30% but losses due to soft rot bacteria may reach up to 100% under insufficient conditions of storage facility, this have huge impacts on famers and vendors.  In vitro efficacy of certain botanicals against bacterial soft rot of tomato were tested in the months of February to March, 2015 in the Department of Plant Pathology and Department of Biochemistry, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (Deemed University)– Allahabad, UP, India. Eight botanicals were screened in vitro, out of these, four were selected based on their performances and evaluated against the bacterial soft rot of storage tomato at 2, 4, and 8 days after inoculation. Maximum zone of inhibition was obtained with treated Control (T_0b=17 mm), followed by Turmeric 30% (T₄=12.4 mm), Turmeric 20% (T₃=11 mm), then Neem 30% (T₆) while the least zone of inhibition was recorded with untreated Control/water (T_0a=0.4 mm) followed by Lemon 30% (T₁₂=1 mm). Turmeric 30% (T₄) proved to be best botanical under screening followed by Turmeric 20% (T₃=11mm). In case of mean disease intensity at eight days after inoculation on storage tomato, highest mean value was recorded in Ginger 30% (T₂=46.2) followed by Neem 20% (T₅=44.2) and lowest value in Streptomycin (T_0b=27), followed by Turmeric 20% (T₃=27.6) then Turmeric 30% (T₄=27.8). Among the botanicals, the lowest disease intensity was with T₃=27.6 followed by T₄= 27.8.

Key words: Tomato, Pectobacterium carotovora subsp carotovora, botanicals, efficacy.