The Effect Of Seed Dressing And Time Of Fungicide ýApplication On Ascochyta Blight Severity And Grain ýYield Of Chickpea Cultivarsý ýý ýý

Mohammad Nazir Mouseli,ýW. Kaddoh and H. Yusefý,⁽¹⁾B. Bayaa, and R. S. Malhotraý⁽²⁾ýý
⁽¹⁾GCSAR, Doma, P.O.Box 113 Damascus, Syriaýýý
⁽²⁾ International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), ýAleppo P. O. Box 5466, Aleppo-Syria.ý

Abstract

Chickpea is one of the traditional crops in Syria for a very long time. ýAscochyta blight (Aschochyta rabie) is the most serious disease which ýreduce chickpea yield. A complete crop failure is expected if conditions conducive ýto disease development prevail. The present experiment aimed to control the ýdisease by Integrated Disease Management (IDM) approach. Several treatments ýwere carried out during three consecutive years starting from 1996 in three ýlocations (Ghab, Tel Hadya, Hymo), where fungicide sprays and seed dressing ýwere studied in a split plot experiments, with three replications. The main plot ýincluded four winter chickpea cultivars with different susceptibility to Aschochyta ýblight, while the sub plots included four fungicide treatments: (1) seed dressing + ýfungicide spray at seedlings stage, (2) seed dressing + fungicide spray at foliar ýgrowth stage, (3) seed dressing + fungicide spray at flowering stage, (4) seed ýdressing + fungicide spray at pod forming stage, (5) Control (without seed dressing ýor fungicide spraying). The seed dressing fungicide used was “Thiobendazole”, and ýthe fungicide used for foliar spray was “Chlorothalonil”. The environmental ýconditions during the period of the experiment allowed the disease to spread ýwidely, causing complete death of the control. Results showed that the infection ýwas less on plots sprayed with fungicide at seedling stage, and produced the ýhighest yield, followed by spraying at foliar stage then at flowering stage and ýfinally at the pod forming stage. The control treatment was severely damaged and ýthe yield was the least. It was concluded that spraying a fungicide at the seedling ýstage will reduce infection rate of Ascochyta blight, leading to an increase in yield, ýand can be considered an important component in integrated management of the ýdisease.ý