Effect of temperature, pH and different culture media on growth and sclerotia formation of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary on chickpea

Rinku Paul^a* and Pramod Kumar Pandey^a
aUniversity Department of Botany, Ranchi University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India

Received : 25th July, 2015; Revised : 29th August, 2015

Abstract : Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a crop which is being hampered by the disease known as stem rot. There is a decrease in the yield of the crop, due to this disease. This disease occurs by the pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary. Different parameters were studied like effect of different solid and liquid media, temperature and pH on growth and sclerotia formation of the pathogen. Potato Dextrose Agar media was found to be the best supportive media for better growth and sclerotia formation of the pathogen. Likewise, it was also found that Potato dextrose media as liquid media was the best among the media tried and was followed by Czapek’s Dox media. 30°C was the best optimum temperature and pH range from 5.0 to 7.0 was suitable for growth and sclerotia formation by the pathogen. However, best growth was recorded at pH 5.