Evaluation of seed-treating chemicals against seed-borne fungi on germinating wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seeds

Abstract

Seed-borne pathogens of wheat play a vital role in causing plant diseases and constrain wheat productivity in Bangladesh. An experiment was conducted to evaluate four seed-treating chemicals, namely Knowin 50 WP, Sunvit 50 WP, Neuben 72 WP and Tilt 250 EC, against wheat seed-borne fungi in the plant protection laboratory, Agrotechnology Discipline, Khulna University Khulna, Bangladesh from January, 2021 to October, 2021. The experiment was carried out to isolate the associated seed-borne fungi in two wheat varieties and determine the efficacy of fungicides to control these seed-borne fungi of wheat. Wheat seed samples (Farmer's seed) of two (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties (BARI Gom-25 and BARI Gom-26) were collected from the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Jashore. The experiment was conducted following the complete randomized design (CRD) with four replications. Different seed-borne fungi, Alternaria spp., Bipolaris spp., Curvularia spp. and Aspergillus spp., were identified as associated fungi from these two varieties of seeds. The prevalence of different seed-borne fungi varied independently and individually across wheat varieties. In the case of germination between two wheat varieties, the highest germination percentage was recorded in BARI Gom-26. All the tested fungicides increased the germination percentage compared to untreated seeds. Knowin 50 WP showed a superior influence on the germination of the wheat variety BARI Gom-26 over untreated seeds using the Blotter method. Among the tested fungicides, Tilt 250 EC showed strong effectiveness in controlling all the fungi associated with wheat seeds.