Brown patch severity of lawn grass species as influenced by weather parameters in mid-hills of Himachal Pradesh
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Turfgrass industry is now known as "billion-dollar industry" for making a significant contribution to the economy worldwide.Many states in the U.S. revealed it as the highest income generating sector (Breuninger et al., 2013).Turfgrass research and development is still at its infancy in India.Recently there has been an increased demand of amenity grasses for various purposes, be it home gardens, school parks, offices and hospitals etc.Under all situations grasses undergo various stress conditions like frequent mowing, human traffic, drought and heavy rains etc. Lawn is regarded as the heart of garden and any negligence in its maintenance may cost the beauty of the garden.Though selected for their wear and tear bearing capacity, lawn grasses are frequently prone to a variety of diseases especially due to prevailing congenial weather conditions which support the growth of numerous pathogens.One such disease is brown patch disease or Rhizoctonia blight caused by 'Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn'.It is regarded as one of the most economically important diseases of turfgrasses which can affect both cool-season grasses such as perennial ryegrass, creeping bentgrass, tall fescue, and annual bluegrass (referred to as "brown patch") as well as warm-season grasses like zoysiagrass and bermuda grass (referred to as "large patch") (Hyakumachi et al., 1998).'R.solani' is a soil-borne basidiomycetous fungus which causes foliar blight of turfgrasses.The disease first appears as circular to irregular blighted areas which are purplish green during early stages and later turning light brown.The most characteristic symptom of the disease is formation of "smoke rings" i.e. the appearance of white tufts of mycelium bordering the infected areas in the early mornings.The disease is erumpent during the periods of high temperature, humidity and water on the surface of leaves (Couch 1995).In 1993, it was found that 30% of all fungicide spent in turfgrass industry was allocated for managing brown patch (Palmieri et al., 2006).Many homeowners regularly try to control brown patch using fungicides (Koehler et al., 2017).The appearance of 'R.solani' may be accurately predicted based on meteorological data, thereby limiting the application of control measures (fungicidal treatment or attrition by sweeping the surface of the turf with a bamboo pole) to the critical periods and so affecting a considerable economy.However, attempts made previously to relate brown patch disease with environmental conditions were met with scepticism due to uncertainty in accurate weather forecasting.Later, with advancement in weather forecasting, weather-based disease forecasting systems resurfaced in the 1980s and 1990s.As knowledge regarding the disease is lacking from the Indian subcontinent, this study focuses on the severity of the disease on the turfgrass industry and identifying key environmental factors congenial for disease development.The expected results can contribute towards diagnosis and forecasting of the disease which can be utilized to devise economically viable management strategies.The experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of Department of Floriculture and Landscape Architecture, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, (HP) during 2020-21 under natural field conditions.The seeds of different lawn species were sown in plots of one meter square in three replications each in Randomised Block Design (on 20 th March 2020).Data on disease severity of four different lawn grass species i.e., cool season grasses namely, 'Lolium perenne', 'Agrostis stolonifera' and 'Festuca rubra' and a warm season grass i.e., 'Cynodon dactylon' (procured
Source: Journal of Agrometeorology
Authors: ABHISHEK SHARMA, ASHNA ACHARYA, JASBIR SINGH WAZIR
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Chemistry
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404894693