Crown rot of groundnut
B.Sc. (Hons.)
Dr. Gulshan Irshad
crown rot or Collar rot or seedling blight of Groundnut
- Aspergillus niger and A. pulverulentum
Symptoms
• The disease usually appears in three phases.
i. Pre-emergence rot
Seeds are attacked by soil-borne conidia and caused rotting of seeds. The
seeds are covered with black masses of spores and internal tissues of seed
become soft and watery.
ii. Post-emergence rot
The pathogen attacks the emerging young
seedling and cause circular brown spots on the
cotyledons. The symptom spreads later to the
hypocotyl and stem. Brown discolored spots
appear on collar region. The affected portion
become soft and rotten, resulting in the collapse
of the seedling. The collar region is covered by
profuse growth of fungus and conidia and affected
stem also show shredding symptom.
ii. Crown rot
The infection when occurs in adult plants show
crown rot symptoms. Large lesions develop on the
stem below the soil and spread upwards along the
branches causing drooping of leaves and wilting of
plant.
Symptoms
Pathogen
• The mycelium of the fungus is hyaline to sub-hyaline. Conidiophores arise
directly from the substrate and are septate, thick walled, hyaline or olive
brown in colour.
• The vesicles are mostly globose and have two rows of hyaline phialides
viz., primary and secondary phialides.
• The conidial head are dark brown to black. The conidia are globose, dark
brown in colour and produce in long chains.
Favourable Conditions
• Deep sowing of seeds.
• High soil temperature (30-35˚ C).
• Low soil moisture.
Disease cycle
• The pathogen survive in plant debris in the soil, not necessarily from a
groundnut crop. Soil-borne conidia cause disease carry over from season
to season. The other primary source is the infeced seeds. The pathogen is
also seedborne in nature.
Management
• Crop rotation.
• Destruction of plant debris.
• Remove and destroy previous season's infested crop debris in the field
• Seed treatment with Trichoderma viride application of Trichoderma
viride / T. harzianum @ 4 g/kg of seeds and soil T. harzianum at 2.5kg/ha,
preferably with organic amendments such as castor cake or neem cake or
mustard cake @ 500 kg/ ha.
