Abstract

In this work, sudden wilt syndrome in sesame was investigated during varying irrigation treatments. For the four irrigation intervals numbers of infected plants and infected rows were determined in experiments conducted during growing periods. The resulting data were transformed to percent values and regressed against the irrigation intervals. The correlations between the rates of infected plants and irrigation intervals and between the rates of infected rows and irrigation intervals were assessed separately in replicate and total plots following testing. Positive increases were observed for both categories within total plots. The correlations for the two years were r² = 0.86 and r² = 0.85 for the wilted plant category, and r² = 0.99 and r² = 1 for the infected row category. Fusariım oxysporumfsp sesame and Macrophomina phaseolina were two of the parasitic pathogens isolated from samples. In addition, parasitic pathogens were not isolated from some of the samples that displayed sudden wilt symptoms. Depending on delays in irrigation within irrigated crops grown in drought and hot regions, sudden wilt syndrome of sesame may increase. The causes of sudden wilt syndrome appear to be parasitic pathogens, drought stress, or the combined effect of both.

Key words: Sesame, irrigation intervals, sudden wilt.