Investigation on screening of diverse potato germplasm associated with black scurf resistance

Black scurf disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn has emerged as a major problem and is known to cause  qualitative and quantitative losses in potato. The present investigation was carried out at the Agricultural Research Farm, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo during 2021-22 and 2022-23. Experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications in pre infected field having adequate inoculum of R. solani to evaluate thirteen potato varieties for resistance against black scurf. The disease severity was monitored after harvest. The results revealed that in field plots, none of the varieties showed immune reaction among thirteen varieties. Kufri Pukhraj figured highly susceptible, whereas Kufri Sindhuri exhibited resistance with less than 1 per cent disease severity under Malwa region of Punjab state. Additionally, other varieties showed resistant response (Kufri Frysona, Kufri Lalima, Kufri Jawahar and Kufri Kanchan) and four varieties, namely Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Chipsona-1, Kufri Lauvkar and Kufri Chandramukhi, were found moderate resistant. Varietal resistance was the most economical and environment friendly method to control the disease severity of black scurf.