Paddy Sheath Blight - High Yields Agro

Symptoms

The fungus affects the crop from tillering to heading stage.
Initial symptoms are noticed on leaf sheaths near water level.
On the leaf sheath oval or elliptical or irregular greenish grey spots are formed.
As the spots enlarge, the centre becomes greyish white with an irregular blackish brown or purple brown border.
Lesions on the upper parts of plants extend rapidly coalesing with each other to cover entire tillers from the water line to the flag leaf.
The presence of several large lesions on a leaf sheath usually causes death of the whole leaf,
In severe cases all the leaves of a plant may be blighted in this way.
The infection extends to the inner sheaths resulting in death of the entire plant.
Older plants are highly susceptible.
Plants heavily infected in the early heading and grain filling growth stages produce poorly filled grain, especially in the lower part of the panicle..
Favourable conditions:
- Presence of sclerotia or infection bodies floating on the water
- Presence of the sclerotia in the soil
- Relative humidity from 96 to 100%
- Temperature from 28-32 °c
- High levels of nitrogen fertilizer
- High seeding rate or closing plant spacing
- Frequent rain

Management

Apply organic amendments viz., neem cake @ 60Kg/ac or FYM 5 tonnes/ha.
Avoid flow of irrigation water from infected fields to healthy fields. .
Deep ploughing in summer and burning of stubbles.
Spray Carbendazim 200g /ac. Soil application of B. subtilis @ of 1 kg/ac after 30 days of transplanting.
(The product should be mixed with 20 kg of FYM/Sand and applied).
Foliar spray at 0.2% at boot leaf stage and 10 days later.(400 g/ac).