Efficacy of Fungicides, Antagonists and Herbicides Against Sclerotium oryzae, Causal Agent of Stem Rot of Rice

Antagonistic effect of different fungicides, antagonists and herbicides was tested by poisoned food technique, dual culture test and in pot culture against Sclerotium oryzae. Hexaconazole @ 200 ppm and propiconazole @ 100 ppm and butachlor @ 400 ppm were found effective in inhibiting S. oryzae under in vitro conditions. Among antagonists, Trichoderma viride (strain T1) and Pseudomonas fluorescens (strain BI-1) were found to have most potential antagonistic activity inhibiting growth of test pathogen by 75.3 and 77.2 per cent, respectively. Integrated management against stem rot of rice was attempted under pot culture. Of the twelve treatments, combined soil application of butachlor (400 ppm) 8–10 days after pathogen inoculation followed by application of T. viride @ 10 g kg−1 and P. fluorescens @10 ml kg−1 just at the appearance of the disease followed by spraying of propiconazole (100 ppm) were found superior to other treatments in reducing the disease and promoting the plant growth parameters like root length, shoot height, dry shoot and root weight of rice plants.