Management of leaf curl disease of sunflower under field conditions

A field experiment on management of white fly transmitted leaf curl disease on sunflower crop was conducted for three years during rabi season at RARS, Nandyal. The experiment was planned with seven treatments (six insecticides and one untreated) in three replications for three years i.e., rabi 201718, 2018–19 and 2019–20. The insecticides used were imidacloprid 17.8 SL, fipronil 5 SC, triazophos 40 EC, diafenthiuron 50 WP, flonicamid 50 WG and spiromesifen 24 SC. For six treatments (T₁ to T₆) seed treatment was done with imidacloprid 600 FS and for T₇ was maintained without seed treatment. Pooled analysis revealed that the treatment T₄:(Seed treatment with imidacloprid 600 FS@ 5ml/kg seed+ foliar spray with diafenthiuron 50 WP @1 g/lit at 30, 45 and 60 days after sowing) recorded the lesser leaf curl incidence of 23.72% and higher yield of 1591 kg/ha, which is followed by the treatment T₅: (Seed treatment with imidacloprid 600FS @ 5ml/kg seed + foliar spray with flonicamid 50 WG @ 0.25 g/lit at 30, 45 and 60 DAS) recorded the disease incidence of 24.29% with higher yield of 1457 kg/ha and both were at par. Both the treatments recorded B:C ratio of 1.79 and 1.80, respectively. Higher incidence of 41.9% and lower yield of 1268 kg/ha was recorded in untreated control. The results concluded that spraying of diafenthiuron and flonicamid was effective in reduction of disease with higher yields and high B:C ratio, followed by triazophos and spiromesifen.