Indian Phytopath.

52 (2) : 142-147 (1999)

Efficacy of different fungicidal spray schedules in combating

apple scab severity in Uttar Pradesh Himalayas
K.P. SINGH and J. KUMAR
Plant Pathology

Section, Hill Campus, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture

and Technology,

Ranichauri

249 199

ABSTRACT
: Five spray schedules comprising of nonsystemic and systemic fungicides were evaluated against apple
scab in the disease prone Bhatwari fruit belt in Uttar Pradesh hills over three consecutive growing seasons. At this
region, the ascospore maturity and discharge took place on first fortnight of May and corresponded
to the petal fall
stage of trees to its fruit development stage. Urea @ 5 per cent concentration
had a significant effect on breaking of
the life cycle of V. inaequa/is in overwintered
leaves. All the spray schedules starting at the petal fall stage were
effective in reducing primary (67.8 to 81.2%) and secondary (82.5 to 90.9%) infection on leaves and fruits, thus saving
earlier sprays. Thiophanate
methyl was most effective in checking primary infection on one year growth. The variables
most useful in differentiating
disease incidence at various tree growth stages were infection rate Irsl and area under
the scab progress curve (AUSPC].
Key words:

Spray schedules,

Venturia inaequalis,

antisporulant

Scab caused by Venturia inaequalis (Cooke) winter (anamorph Spilocia pomi Fr.) is one of the most
destructive disease of apple (Malus domestica Borkh.)
world wide (MacHardy, 1996), and leads to significant
losses every season in India (Ann, 1998). Chemical
control forms an effective component of the disease
management in apple scab as non-chemical alternatives do not exist (Jones, 1995). Different management strategies have been developed to prevent the
disease efficiently through scheduled application of
fungicides in a protective spray programme (Gupta,
1985), besides, application of systemic and sterol-inhibiting (SB!) fungicides (Schwabe, 1980; Schwabe
and Jones, 1983; Schwabe et al., 1984; Szkolnik, 1981;
Thakur and Gupta, 1990, 1992).
In U.P. hills, the incidence of apple scab in
Bhatwari fruit belt over the past five years ranges from
47.92 to 74.33 per cent. There are reports on pre- leaf
fall sprays of various chemicals, showing adverse effect on pseudothecial development in the fallen apple
leaves (Gupta, 1989; Gadoury et al., 1989; Gupta,
1995; Sharma, 1995). Present study was, therefore,
conducted to develop a spray schedule involving commonly available systemic and non-systemic fungicides
to combat this disease.
MATERIALS

AND METHODS

Experiments were conducted on 10 year old Red

Delicious apple trees naturally infected with V.

activity, disease index, infection rate, AUSPC

inaequalis at the farmers orchards in the Bhatwari

fruit belt (village Jhalla, 2600 m.s.!.) over three consecutive (1993, 1994 and 1995) apple growing seasons. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with three blocks and three trees
per replication. Six spray schedules (Table 1) comprising of non-systemic and systemic fungicides along with
a pre- leaf fall urea spray (5%) were given at different
phenological stages of the tree. In another set of experiment, fungicides and urea were sprayed at preleaf fall stage to assess their role in suppressing the
discharge of V. inaequalis ascospore. These treatments
were replicated three times in randomized block design with single- tree plots. After one week of spray in
November, 100 leaves were picked from each treatment and placed in cheese cloth bags and the bags
were left on the orchard floor during the winter 1993,
1994 and 1995 crop season. The replicate set of leaves
from each treatment were brought to the laboratory by
May end in 1994, 1995 and 1996, and observed for
the pseudothecial development. Number of ascospores
in 30 randomly chosen disk from each treatment were
recorded.
A microprocessor
based apple scab predictor,
RSS-412, that records data on temperature, rainfall,
relative humidity and leaf wetness to a modified
Mill's table to give the probability of apple scab occurrence (Mills, 1944), was used to monitor the
occurence of infection periods during each of the

[VoL 52(2) 1999]

Indian Phytopathology

study year (Fig. I). Simultaneously, maturity and discharge of ascoposre in the orchard was monitored at
weekly intervals. Fungicides were sprayed with a foot
sprayer at different phenological stage of the tree.
Control trees were sprayed with water.

(days after observation) at the ith observation;

total number of observations.

RESULTS
Spray

100

Total No. of leaves/Fruit observed

x highest class rating
Data were analyzed separately for each year because over all effect of spray schedule significantly
differed. Area under scab progress curve (Tooley and
Grau, 1984) for each treatment was calculated as follows:

AND DISUCSSION

schedule

All the five spray schedules recorded significant

disease reduction in leaves and fruits when compared
to untreated checks (Table 2). Of all schedules, 2nd
was the most effective in control of primary and secondary infection of scab. Carbendazim (0.05%) and
thiophanate methyl (0.01%) given as first spray in the
schedules I and II were able to mask the appearance
of reddish-brown flecks in the leaves which, however,
were observed after 17 and 18 days of spraying, which
is consistent with the earlier reports of Hoch and
Szkolnik (1979), Szkolnik (I 981) and Thakur and
Gupta (1990, 1992) on pre-symptom activity of these
fungicides. Thiophanate methyl and carbendazim also
showed acute fungitoxicity to primary infection (ter-

r =

where XI= per cent disease index at tl ; x2 = per cent

disease index at t2 ; t2 - tl = time interval between two
observation; In = natural log
n-l

AUSPC = E;'I {(X;+I+ Xy2}{t;~I}

in which Xi = the cumulative disease incidence, expressed as a proportion at the ith observation; ti = time

Table 1. Spray schedule for the control of apple scab at Harsil fruit belt of Garhwal hills
Tree stage
I.

Petal fall

2.

Fruit set
(pea size)
Fruit
development
(walnut size)
Fruit
development
20-25 days
before harvest
Pre-leaf fall

3.

4.

5.
6.

All the five spray schedules provided reasonably

good control of primary and secondary infection of
scab. This suggested that fungicidal spray would provide a preventive measure to control the apple scab
disease in those areas where it is being disseminated
through airborne conidia. During all the three years,
first ascopsore maturity was recorded at the petal fall
stage of the tree, and the first spray in each of the
treatment were given at this stage (Table 1).

Class rating x No. of leaves/

Fruits in a particular class
x

Primary scab incidence was recorded at the fruit

set stage of trees. Anti-sporulant activity of fungicides
in each spray schedule was also determined as reported by Sharma (1995).

After each spraying, scab incidence was assessed

on 10 terminals and 30 fruits, respectively, using
Croxall's key (Croxall et al., 1952 a,b). Final observations were recorded 15 days before harvest on 100
leaves and 30 fruits per replication. The per cent disease index (PDT) was calculated as follows :

Disease index (%) = ---------------------------------

143

II

III

IV

Carbendazim
(0.05%)
Fenarimol
(0.04%)
Dodine
(0.1%)

Thiophanate
methyl (0.1%)
Donine
(0.1%)
Bitertanol
(0.075%)

Mancozeb
(0.30%)
Captan
(0.20%)
Thiophanate
methyl(O.1%)

Bitertanol
(0.075%)
Carbendazim
(0.05%)
Fenarimol
(0.04%)

Chlorothalonil
(0.20%)
Fenarimol
(0.04%)
Dodine
(0.1%)

Thiophanate
methyl(O.1%)
Mancozeb
(0.30%)
Urea
(5%)

Fenarimol
(0.04%)
Mancozeb
(0.30%)
Urea
(5%)

Dithianon
(0.075%)
Bitertanol
(0.075%)
Urea
(5%)

Mancozeb
(0.30%)
Captan
(0.20%)
Urea
(5%)

Delan
(0.075%)
Mancozeb
(0.30%)
Urea
(5%)

Carbendazim (Bavistin WP); Fenarimol (Rubigan); Dodine (Sylit 65 WP); Thiophanate methyl (Topsin M 70 WP);
Mancozeb (Indofil M-45); Bitertanol (Baycor 25 WP); Dithianon (Delan 75 WP); Chlorothalonil (Kavach 75 WP).

144

Table 2. Effectiveness
Spray
Schedule

II
III
IV
V

of different fungicidal

spray schedules

against apple scab

Reduction over check

1993
L

[Vol. 52(2) 1999]

Indian Phytopathology

82.39
87.26
70.69
79.28
75.87

1994
L

F
97.46
100.00
84.64
87.99
83.37

Average of three replications,

83.92
85.49
71.82
77.87
74.24

1995
F
90.99
92.37
87.43
90.10
89.21

L
69.85
72.45
62.36
67.64
64.48

100 leaves/30 fruits were assessed per replication.

minals, leaves and fruit) of V. inaequalis. Bitertanol

(0.075%) produced reddish-brown to chlorotic flecks
15 days after first spraying and the findings are supported by the results of Thakur and Gupta (1990, 1992).
On the contrary, Schwabe et a/. (1984) showed that
the effect of these fungicides suppressed the appearance of chlorotic spots. The results suggest that Ist
spray of thiophanate methyl and carbendazim, during
abscission of petal were more effective in controlling
disease infection than other fungicides. Mancozeb,
bitertanol and chlorothalonil as the first spray were
less effective in the suppression of symptom develop-

Mean
F
86.13
87.19
77.96
85.04
83.66

78.06
8\.22
67.82
74.44
71.08

89.49
90.91
82.47
87.35
85.73

L, Per cent leaves; F, Per cent fruit.

ment and allowed the production of sporulation on

scab lesions. Sharma (1995) recently studied different
spray schedule on the control of primary infection of
scab and concluded that carbendazim does playa decisive role in controlling scab while applied at the
petal fall stage of apple trees.
The results presented in Table 2 reveal that 2nd
spray schedule showed better protective activity over
other schedules. This schedule recorded significant reduction in leaf (81.2 %) and fruit infection (90.98%)
over untreated control, respectively. Spray schedule I
also exhibited good protective coverage to the crop

Table 3. Effect of different spray schedules on scab incidence, infection rate (r) and area under scab progress curve (AUSPC)
at different phenological stage of Red Delecious apple trees*.
Disease incidence at phenological
Spray
schedule

II

III

IV

Control

FS
T
L
F
T
L
F
T
L
F
T
L
F
T
L
F
T
L
F

13.33'
1.23'
1.48'
13.34'
1.16'
1.78'
14.34'
2.45'
2.29'
16.67'
1.76"
2.74'
21.11b
1.93b
2.8244.22b
7.97b
13.34b

FD
28.67'
2.69'
2.59'
28.89'
3.24'
2.96'
56.67<
5.15"
8.\4"
41.11b
3.68-1
3.70'
43.33b
3.97'
4.73"
76.67d
12.34b
28.33b

stages#

FD

FD

BH

35.56'
3.25'
3.94'
34.543.36'
5.02'
61.10<
6.48b
12.21b

52.22b

58.89b

4.47'
8.8944.44'
4.527.68"
70.00d
7.79<1

5.45'
9.9351.11-

43.33'b
4.29'b
5.10"
53.22b<
4.6 pb
8.22-b
91.11 d
21.90<
40.81<

13.32'
55.56b
5.09-b
10.47-1
63.34<
6.71 be
11.47'
96.67'
29.92d
53.38b

4.91'
8.3778.89d
8.97b
15.44'
66.74<
7.36'b
11.34'
72.22<
8.81b
12.07100.00'
30.38<
65.96b

r
(per day)**
0.022
0.018
0.025
0.022
0.017
0.016
0.043
0.011
0.021
0.021
0.012
0.020
0.019/
0.013
0.016
0.058
0.024
0.034

AUSPCs
203.53
210.08
138.42
186.90
214.38
141.03
219.89
226.36
202.58
219.44
220.27
179.35
225.48
211.52
185.38
253.84
231.89
204.18

*Pooled data of three years, 1993, 1994 and 1995.

#FS, fruit set (pea size); FD, fruit development (walnut size); FD, fruit development (3,6 ern) and BH, before harvest,
growth stage (26 days after each growth stage).
**The simple interest infection rate obtained by rearessing the transformed value of In [1I(I-x)] of disease incidence on time.
$Area under scab progress curve.

Indian Phytopathology

[Vol. 52(2) 1999]

145

Table 4. Antisporulant activity of fungicides used in spray

schedules against Venturia inaequalis on naturally infected Red Delecious apple trees
Reduction
Spray
schedule
I

IT
ill

IV
V

in conidia number

Production#
(%)

Germination$

No. of viable
conidia produced!
lesion

84.81
89.67
74.82
82.19
81.56

53.47

2598
0945
1876
3688
5864

58.53
42.74
52.26
50.38

Pooled mean of observation of 1993, 1994 and 1995.

#Reduction in conidia production of 5 mmvlesion are the
means of 10 lesions per treatment.
$Data are the percentage of 100 conidia observed.

As regards summer progress of infection, 2nd spray

schedule gave complete control of disease in terminal
leaves as well as fruits throughout the season. The
infection rate and AUSPC values of disease incidence
for each year at different phenological stages of tree
were analyzed separately to evaluate treatment effects.
The unsprayed control plots had significantly higher r
(0.058;0.024;0.034)
and AUSPC values (253.84;
231.89; 204.18) for disease incidence at terminal, leaves
and fruits (Table 3).

May June July AugustSept.

Months

CJ 19930

1994 .1995

Fig. 1. Occurrence
of apple scab infection
Bhatwari fruit belt of V.P. Himalayas

periods

in

Second spray schedule also proved highly effective in reducing disease incidence as it reduced the
infection rate at the terminals (0.03, 0.03, 0.01), leaves
(0.03, 0.02, 0.02) and fruits (0.01, 0.02) per unit per
day during 1993, 1994 and 1995, respectively (Fig. 1).
AUSPC was least in II spray schedule (Fig. 2). Spray

and recorded 78.06 and 89.49 per cent reduction in

leaf and fruit infection, respectively. Statistically, both
the spray schedules appeared equally good in comparison to others, while the 3rd spray schedule was found
least effective in protective activity.
Table 5. Effect of pre leaf fall spray of various fungicides
ascospores of Venturia inaequalis
Concentration

Pseudothecial

em'
Treatment
Carbendazim
Fenarimol
Dodine
Thiophanate methyl
Mancozeb
Bitertanol
Dithianon
Chlorothalonil
Captan
Urea
Urea
Control
*Reduction over check.

(%)
0.05
0.04
0.10
0.10
0.30
0.075
0.075
0.20
0.20
2.00
5.00

and urea on the production

5.39'b
23.79,r
28.17rl
11.53bc
18.1800'
21.42dcr
31.49&
28.75rl
18.42OOe
14.7300
3.15'
58.17h

ROC
(%)
90.37
59.10
51.57
80.18
68.75
63.18
45.86
50.57
68.33
74.68
94.58

of pseudothecia

Ascospore
discharged!
ern'
715'
4182<
6194d
2974b
4290<
4140<
9220'
6528d
4558<
3278b
563'
12507r

and discharge

ROC
94.28
66.56
50.47
76.22
65.70
66.89
26.28
47.80
63.55
73.79
95.50

of

[Vol. 52(2) 1999]

Indian Phytopathology

146

~.---~~------------------~-----.
A

200

U
S

P
C
60 ... ;..

---1996
MEAN

,-

.;

.;

oL-~--------~~~~~~~~~~~
I

II

III IV

VI

Terminal

II

III

IV

VI

Leaves!I'er.

Fig. 2. Area under scab progress

spray schedule

II

III IV

VI

Fruit

curves for each of the

schedule 1st and 2nd were rated at par in 4hecking the

scab rate during each year. The data on tedtinal, leaves
and fruit disease incidence also indicat~ that spray
schedule 2nd gave least disease score followed by spray
schedule 1st, 4th and 5th. Vanderplank (1963) suggested that under low disease severity (i.e. < 5%), the
disease progresses logarithmically because the susceptible tissues (I-X) are not a limiting factor. In case of
spray schedule I and II, the increase of disease (dx/dt)
was very slow, even though the green area was not a
limiting factor for infection. Consequently, the disease
developed at logarithmic rate.
Antisporulant

activity

of fungicides

From Table 4, it is evident that in treatments only

a few of the conidia were viable. Spray schedule 2nd
had a deleterious effect on the conidia reduction and
produced very less number of viable conidia (945/lesion), since fungicidal treatment of secondary inoculum virtually checked the spread of the disease. However, the fungicides were ineffective if it rained immediately after spray.
Several worker reported the reduced production
and germination of V inaequa/is conidia after postinoculation treatment of fungicides (O'Leary and
Sutton, 1986; Kelley and Jones, 1881; Thakur and
Gupta, 1990, 1992). Although, Sharma (1995) observed that application of Difolatan at green tip;
Benlate at petal fall; hexacap at walnut size; mancozeb
at 15-20 days before harvest and urea at pre-leaf fall
stage of tree were effective schedule that reduced the
number of viable conidia. Our results indicate that
conidia produced from lesions after pre- and postsymptom application of fungicides (spray schedule, II)
have reduction in germination (58.53%) and production (89.67%) of conidia number than the control
conidia.

Pre-leaf

fall spray

In orchard, the primary source of inoculum overwintered on infected leaves which could provide ascospores throughout the growing season; foliar fungicides alone may not give satisfactory control of the
disease. Therefore, the present investigation recorded
that an application of urea at 5% level of concentration before abscission of leaves provided highest
(94.58%) inhibition of pseudothecial development and
suppression of ascospore productivity (95.50%),
whereas at 2% level, it gave 74.68 and 73.79 per cent
reduction. Carbendazim also exhibited 94.28 per cent
reduction but dithianon, chlorothalonil and dodine
showed least pseudothecial inhibitory action (Table 5).
Ascospore productivity was also reduced by the application of 0.05 per cent of carbendazim. Five per cent
urea spray not only suppressed the ascospore production completely in the fallen apple leaves but also helped
in the early decomposition of the leaves by increasing
the microbial activity of fallen leaves. The efficacy of
urea and fungicides has also been worked (Gupta, 1989,
Gupta and Lele, 1980; Gupta, 1995). Efficacy of
thiophanate-methyl, bitertanol, dodine, chlorothalonil
and captan was observed here as well and confirmed
earlier reports (Gupta and Lele, 1980; Gupta, 1989;
O'Leary and Suttan, 1986; Gadoury et al., 1989).
Experiments showed that the five sprays of fungicides available with Plant Protection Department, Govt.
of Uttar Pradesh and pre-leaf fall urea, spray can be
rated as a safe treatment for scab control on Red Delicious apples. While it was recommended that
thiophanate methyl is more benefical at the petal fall
for primary infection, dodine, baycor, rubigan and
Indofil M-45 were sufficient to control the secondary
infections.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Authors are grateful to the apple growers of village Jhala for providing orchards for conducting present
study. Research support grant was provided by the
ICAR.. We thank Shri Ramesh Pal for technical assistance.
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and