Saba Banday

Vitis vinifera L. is one of the most economically important fruit crops worldwide and contributes significantly to the horticultural economy of India. However, grape production is severely constrained by several fungal diseases, including anthracnose, powdery mildew, gray mold, and downy mildew, which are commonly managed through repeated chemical pesticide applications. Excessive use of agrochemicals has raised serious concerns regarding environmental pollution, pesticide resistance, human health hazards, and sustainability of viticulture practices. In the present study, culturable fungal and bacterial endophytes were isolated from healthy leaves and twigs of four grapevine varieties, namely Sahebi, Fantasy Seedless, Hussaini, and Thompson Seedless, collected from university orchards at Shalimar, Srinagar. Endophytes were isolated following standard surface sterilization techniques and cultured on selective media. A total of 55 morphologically distinct endophytic isolates comprising 25 fungal and 30 bacterial isolates were obtained. The isolates exhibited considerable variation in colony morphology, pigmentation, texture, and microscopic characteristics, indicating substantial endophytic diversity among grapevine tissues. Pathogenicity testing confirmed the non-pathogenic nature of the isolates. The study highlights the diversity of grapevine-associated endophytes and their potential role as promising biological control agents for sustainable viticulture. Further molecular characterization and field evaluation of these isolates may contribute to the development of eco-friendly disease management strategies and bioinoculants for grape cultivation in India.

Biological control of plant diseases is an important component of disease management, particularly in the todays world of environmental consciousness and awareness. It is particularly preferred method of disease management under organic production system. Biological control is successful in almost all the crops against a number of diseases but soil borne diseases are most responsive to bio-control methods. The agents of biological control, known as bio-control agents (BCAs) belong to a vast group of micro-organisms, particularly fungi (Trichoderma, Ampelomyces, etc), bacteria (Pseudomonas, Bacillus, etc) and actinomycetes. Bottle gourd is an important vegetable crop belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae. It suffers from a number of diseases like anthracnose, powdery mildew, downy mildew, wilt, etc. The present review shall be an attempt to review the biological control of the major diseases of bottle gourd.

The mechanization of agricultural system, both horizontal and vertical cultivation, is imperative for judicious application of resources, reduction in drudgery of workforce, amelioration of productivity and improvement in competitiveness of the produce. However, the reduction in per capita land availability has triggered a mass migration towards vertical cultivation system with heavy reliance towards automation, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence. The vertical system of cultivation and protected cultivation system is essential to overcome the limitations of small land holdings, particularly in developing countries and combat global climate change. With the result, the concept of hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics is gaining momentum at a rapid pace. The horizontal and vertical system also demands the preparation of organic fertilizer through advanced machinery for bolstering the soil fertility and enhancement in productivity of agricultural crops.

Understanding how nutrients accumulate and change throughout the developmental stages according to the BBCH scale can be a very effective technique for developing fertilization programmes for high-quality, marketable grape production. Accordingly, the macro- and micronutrient concentrations at different growth stages were analyzed for two commercial grape cultivars, viz., “Anab-e-Shahi” and “Perlette”, by using an extended BBCH scale. The results show nitrogen content was reduced during the sampling period (D1 to D6) from 1.76 percent to 1.09 percent. Potassium concentration in developing berries kept on increasing from 0.15%, at principal growth stage 7 with BBCH code 73 (D1), to 0.26% at principal growth stage 8 code 89 (D6). The lowest phosphorus content of 253.88 ppm and the highest of 338.43 ppm were found in growth stages D1 and D6, respectively. The berry Ca however showed an increase first and thereafter decreased to 225.18 ppm at harvest. Mg content also recorded a similar trend from stages D1 to D6 of the BBCH scale and decreased to 116.08 ppm at D6. B and Cu concentrations increased from D1 to D6, and Mn and Zn increased first and decreased thereafter until harvest. No specific trend was recorded in Fe concentration. The concentration of nutrients in berries at different developmental stages can be used as the standard reference for growing berries using proper fertilization.

Walnut (Juglans regia L.) is an important dry fruits species and belongs to the family Juglandaceae. Walnut is mainly grown in China, USA, Iran, and also in India. In India, major walnut growing states are Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh. In India, Jammu and Kashmir is the principal walnut growing state having a monopoly in the production and export of walnut contributing 98% foreign exchange of worth Rs 231.64 crore. Walnut provides dry fruits. It is also used to make many high-nutritional dishes, bakery products, confectionery, and oils. It is a rich source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals with excellent flavor. Many biotic and abiotic factors affect the quality and 404quantity of walnut. Walnut is severely affected by many fungal as well as bacterial diseases, which cause heavy damage to the crop every year. Major diseases of walnut are discussed in this chapter.

Tulip is an ornamental bulbous flowering crop belonging to the Genus Tulipa and family Liliaceae. It is the first ranking bulbous ornamental plant in the world (Nayeem and Qayoom 2015). They are often the first flowers to witness the bloom in the spring. Kashmir valley is located in northern Himalayas in northwestern region of Indian subcontinent. It is the most alluring and fascinating place all over India and the home of famous "Indhra Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden", the largest tulip garden in the entire Asia. However there are number of constraints in tulip cultivation among which bulb rot occupy a prominent place (Piwoni 2000). Bulb rot is posing problem to all the tulip growers throughout the world (De Hertogh et al. 1983). Rot symptoms were observed on tulip bulbs in field as well as in storage conditions (20-22◦C temperature with a relative humidity of 65%) in the summers of 2018 and 2019 in Shalimar fields of Kashmir. The main disease symptoms are yellow sunken spots on bulbs, purple-yellow coloration of leaves. Causal agent was isolated using tissue bit technique (Pathak 1972) on potato dextrose agar plates which where incubated at 24±2◦C . Single spore technique was used to obtain the pure isolate (Johnston and Booth 1983). The isolate covered the full plate (90mm) in ten days. The colony was dull whitish in color, flat and smooth with concentric ring formation in the culture plate with inner ring having a creamy exudation. The mycelium was septate, branched and hyaline in color and measured 3.50-5.20 µm in width with an average of 4.4 µm. Micro-conidia were hyaline, cylindrical to oval, 0-1 septa and measured 7.50-11.00×2.80-3.75 µm in size. Macro conidia were hyaline with 3-4 septa, fusiform, moderately curved which measured 21.15- 32.00×3.80-4.75 µm in size with an average of 28.50±0.21× 4.30±0.2 µm. On the basis of these morphological and cultural characteristics of the fungus, it was identified as Fusarium solani (Mar.) Sacc.,. To confirm the identity the PCR amplification was carried out for two genes Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS 1, ITS 4)and Translation Elongation factor1-alpha gene (tef1- alpha) (O'Donnell et al. 1998; White et al. 1990). BLAST analysis of the sequence obtained for both the genes showed 99% homology with F. solani sequences in GenBank and Fusarium -ID databases. The sequences were deposited in the GenBank (Accession No MN611433, MW995477). Pathogenicity test was conducted on variety orange emperor both in laboratory and polyhouse. Bulbs were divided into three sets, (three bulbs per set) one set was given injury and dipped in conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml) for 30 min, another set was kept uninjured and dipped in spore suspension of same concentration, the third set was served as control and dipped in sterilized distilled water. All the respective sets were incubated in a moist chamber maintained at a temperature of 22 ◦C to observe symptoms. The injured ones showed symptoms after 7-8 days of inoculation, whereas the uninjured bulbs showed symptoms after 11-12 days. No symptoms were observed in controlled set. A pot experiment was also conducted to carry the pathogenicity tests. Bulbs were injured with the help of sterile needle and were dipped in conidial suspension (106 conidia/ml) for 30 min (Pastrana et al. 2014). The bulbs kept for control were dipped in sterilized distilled water. Bulbs were then planted in pots maintained at 18◦C. The above ground parts of the inoculated bulbs showed symptoms like stunted growth which gradually turned yellow and did not produced flowers. The bulbs after harvesting were rotten .No symptoms were observed in controlled plants. To fulfill the Koch's postulates the fungal pathogen was re-isolated which was identified as F. solani. The pathogen is reported to cause disease in other crops (Gupta et al. 2012) but to our knowledge and on the basis of literature, this is the first report of F. solani causing bulb rot of tulip in India.

Grape anthracnose is economically an important disease of grapevine caused by Sphaceloma ampelinum (de Bary) Shear, that affects yield and quality of grapes. An extensive study on disease survey indicates that disease was frequent in all the three districts investigated. The overall disease incidence of 54.69 and 46.38 per cent and intensity of 24.70 and 27.09 per cent was observed in two consecutive years, respectively in main grape growing districts of Kashmir Valley. The maximum disease incidence of 58.84 per cent and intensity of 32.97 per cent was recorded in district Srinagar and minimum disease incidence of 42.41 and intensity of 18.83 per cent was observed in district Ganderbal. Among the different locations investigated, Shalimar of district Srinagar revealed the highest disease incidence (61.44%) and intensity (35.18%) and Repora of district Ganderbal revealed the lowest disease incidence (40.31%) and intensity (17.45%). Further, studies revealed that among the eighteen cultivars screened for disease reaction under natural epiphytotic conditions, cvs. Marroo, Himrod, Khalilli, Flame Beauty and Sonaka exhibited tolerance whereas, cvs. Manik chaman, Crimson seedless, Ararat and Hussaini were found moderately tolerant. Among the non-systemic fungitoxicants evaluated under in vitro conditions, chlorthalonil 75WP was found to be significantly more effective against the pathogen, whereas, zineb 75WP was found to be least efficient. Besides, among the systemic fungicides tested, hexaconazole 5EC was found to be significantly superior followed by carbendazim 50WP at all the concentrations.