MAJOR PLANT

DISEASES IN
CEREALS
-
 INTRODUCTION
• Plant diseases causes great loss
• Many plant diseases infect the cereals
• Most of them causes serious damage to the
crop
• Three of them are discussed here
• They are –
i. Blast of rice
ii. Bacterial blight of rice
iii. Black rust of wheat
 BLAST OF RICE
• also known as rotten neck
• Worldwide distribution
• Serious in humid rice producing countries
• Below 88% humidity disease not very serious
• Symptoms appear on leaf sheaths, rachis,
joints of culms, and even in glumes.
• In India damage caused is about 75%.
 SYMPTOMS
• On leaves it appears as small, bluish flecks,
about 1-3mm diameter
• In older leaves it may become 1cm in length
• Centre of the lesions are pale
green but the rim is dark brown
• On maturity the centre also
becomes straw colored
• Black spots appear on the maturing
inflorescence.
• Culms are severely affected
• If infection occurs before grain
formation, the grains will not be
filled
• The panicle remains straight
• If the infection occurs after the formation of
some grains the panicle hangs down
CAUSAL ORGANISM
 Pyricularia oryzae
 Belongs to Fungi-imperfecti
 Mycelium is septate, multinucleate and
branched hyphae.
 Conidiophores arise from the mycelium
producing conidia at the apex.
 Conidia are ovate, 3-celled,
multinucleate
 Each conidium produces several
germ tubes on germination
 Pyricularia produces a toxin pyricularin
 Pyricularia survive on alternative hosts like grass.
 It is found out that addition of nitrogenous
fertilizers makes the plants more vulnerable to
disease
CONTROL MEASURES
a. Field sanitation
b. Seed treatment- Agrosan GN, mixture of
Aureofungin(20ppm), copper sulphate(20ppm)
c. Foliar sprays- Coppesan, Blitox-50, Cupravit,
Bordauex mixture, Ceresan wet, Verdasan etc.
 BACTERIAL BLIGHT OF RICE
• First emerged in Japan in 1881
• In India it was found out in Maharashtra, later
spread to other northern parts of the country
• Rapid spread of the disease has been
attributed to the introduction of Taichung
Native –I rice variety
• The disease has two phases- leaf blight and
Kresek phases
• Loss percent in India is estimated to be about
6-60%.
 SYMPTOMS
• In leaf blight phase,
i)Linear yellow to straw colored stripes with
wavy margin develop on both edges of the
leaf
ii) tips of leaves dry and become twisted
iii) entire leaf dries off
iv)in dry weather bacterial mass
out and on drying forms
yellowish beads on the surface.
v) cut end of leaves ooze out bacterial mass.
• In the Kresek phase
i)leaves become dry
ii) turn grayish green
iii)begin to roll along the midrib
iv)severely affected plants wither and dies.
 CAUSAL ORGANISM
Xanthomonas oryzae
Gram negative, rod shaped bacterium
0.5-0.8 × 1.0-2.0 µm in size
Motile with a single polar flagellum
Source of inoculum not completely known
In India some grasses act as collateral host
They may even survive on crop debris in soil
Secondary infection occurs through wounds
and stomata by wind-borne air splashes and
by contact.
Fallen decomposing leaves in stagnant water are a
good site for its multiplication
Insects also play role in transmission
Heavy nitrogen doses, poorly drained and shaded
condition increases the vulnerability of the diseases
Most suitable condition- rainy weather, strong winds,
22˚-26˚C temperature
CONTROL MEASURES
a) Seed treatment
i)soaking of seeds for 12hours in 0.025% aqueous
solution of Agrimycin and 0.05% wettable Ceresan
and then transferring seeds to hot water at 52˚-54˚C
for 30 minutes
 ii)Dipping the seeds for 8 hours in 0.1%
Ceresan wet and streptomycin(0.3g/2.5
gallons of water)
b)Five foliar sprays of Agrimycin and copper oxy
chloride at 12days interval
c) Resistant varieties- N-22, IR-8, Jaya and IR-24.
 BLACK RUST OF WHEAT
• It is a serious disease infecting wheat
• Appears in the late crop season
• In north India it is common during the earing
time of the crop
SYMPTOMS
 Rusts appear in the form of elongated, reddish
brown pustules(uredia)
on the stem and leaf sheaths in
early summer
 Stem is severely attacked
 Uredia frequently merge with each other and
burst exposing the brown urediospores
 Late in the summer another kind of pustules
are formed
 They are telia developed on the
same sorus
 Telia are darker and the pustules
formed are black in color
 Prominently seen on the culms
 followed by leaf sheaths and leaves
 CAUSAL ORGANISM
• Puccinia graminis tritici
• Hyphae in wheat leaves and stem are intercellular
with small round or branched haustoria
• In the mycelium uredosori is developed which
produces uredospores
• Each uredospore is oval, stalked, brown, 25-30
×17-20µm,single celled
• Host epidermis is ruptured and the spores are
disseminated
• The liberated spores propagate in the disease field
• Late in the season telia develop
• Within these telutospores develop
• Telia are black in color and develop black colored
pustules
• Each telutospore is oblong, two celled with smooth wall
• Apex is round and pointed
• Telutospores undergo a period of rest for several months
• On the return of the favourable season they germinate
to form the basidium
• In the basidium basidiospores are formed
• After liberation they infect Berberis vulgaris (barberry
plant)
• On germination haploid mycelia are formed
• Flask-shaped structures called pycnidia are formed
on the upper surface of the leaf
• Inside the pycnidia there are spermatiophores
• The spermatiophores cuts off Spermatia at there
tips
• Pycnidia also has certain long branches called
receptive hyphae
• Spermatia and the receptive hyphae of two
opposite strains fuse
• The resulting dikaryotic hyphae develops another
structure called aecidium
• Inside the aecidium aecidiospores are formed
• the aecidiospores liberated again infect a
wheat plant.
CONTROL MEASURES
a) Eradication and sanitation- the plants that are
attacked by the rusts are destroyed
b) Mixed cropping-mixed cropping of wheat and
barley is helpful
c) Chemical methods(foliar sprays)- i) sulphur
dust, ii) zineb, maneb and zinc as four foliar
sprays at an interval of 10-14 days, iii)
diethane M-45, iv) systemic fungicides –
vitavax, plantvax
d) Resistant varieties- NI-146, 284S, 345 and 917
THANK YOU