Effect of fungicide schedules against early blight Alternaria solani (Ell. and Mart.) Jones and Grout in potato Solanum tubrosum L.

Early blight, caused by Alternaria solani (Ell. and Mart.) Jones and Grout is a serious disease of potato growing regions of Maharashtra. Several effective pesticides have been recommended against this pathogen but development of resistance of pathogenic fungi towards pesticides is a great problem that can affect significantly the efficacy of chemical fungicides. Therefore keeping in view an experiment on effect of fungicides schedules against early blight was conducted during 2018-19 and 2019-20 on potato. The experiment laid out in RBD design with four treatments and five replications. The results revealed that spray of mancozeb 75 WP @ 2.5 gm/ liter of water followed by hexaconazole 5 EC @ 0.5 ml /liter of water and then mancozeb 75 WP@ 2.5 gm/ liter of water at 10 days interval was found significantly superior in controlling the early blight of potato and also recorded significant highest yield as compared to other treatments.