Chemical seed treatments for the control of cotton seedling damping-off caused by Rhizoctonia solani under greenhouse conditions

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cotton seed treatment with fungicides in the control of seedling damping-off caused by Rhizoctonia solani, under greenhouse conditions. Treated and untreated delinted seeds of the cultivar DeltaOpal were sowed in sand contained in plastic trays, placed in individual and equidistant wells, 3 cm deep. Into each plastic tray were put 3.0 g of the pathogen inoculum. The inoculation of R. solani AG-4 was done by the homogeneous distribution of the fungus inoculum onto the substrate. The fungus was grown for 35 days on autoclaved oat seeds and then ground to powder using a mill (1 mm). Fungicide seed treatments had a significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on initial and final seedling emergence, pre and post-emergence damping-off, injured seedlings and disease index according to McKinney formula (lesion severity). The best results were obtained by fludioxonil + metalaxyl-M + azoxystrobin, fipronil + pyraclostrobin + methyl-thiophanate, carbendazim + thiram + pencycuron + baytan and carbendazim + thiram + pencycuron + baytan + procymidone. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that injured seedlings and disease index were positively correlated (R = 0.95). This means that the greater the number of injured seedlings, the greater the disease index and the less efficient the fungicide. The fungicides used in the present study did not have any phytotoxic effect on cotton seedlings.