STM Article Repository

A study was conducted to find out the influence of weather factors, temperature, relative humidity, bright sunshine hour, rainfall, evaporation and wind speed and spore load on the incidence of Alternaria solani (Ellis and Martin) Jones and Grout induced early blight of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) during 2019 to 2022. Eight weather factors taken from the agrometeorological observatory located at Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat, India, and were subjected to correlation analysis. The relationship between early blight and concerned weather parameters during Rabi 2020-21 revealed a highly significant positive correlation with evaporation (0.87) and maximum temperature (0.84) at the 0.01 level. PDI was significantly positively correlated with spore load (0.71) and bright sunshine hour (0.64) at the 0.05 level. Whereas Per cent Disease Intensity was negatively correlated with evening humidity (-0.78) at a 0.01 level. During the year Rabi (winter) 2021-22, a substantial negative correlation with evening humidity at the 0.05 level. PDI was positively correlated with spore load (0.79), bright sunshine (0.73) and evaporation (0.68).