Assessment of Early Blight Disease Resistant Tomato F1 Hybrid Arka Abhed in Karimnagar District of Telangana, India

Tomato is the major Solanaceous vegetable crop grown in Karimnagar District of Telangana.  Alternaria tomatophila and Alternaria solani cause early blight disease and severe yield losses to the tomato growers in Karimnagar District. Early blight is the major problem in Karimnagar from June to September months causing severe crop losses to the tomato farmers. Usually farmers are spraying different fungicides based on Copper to control early blight disease for private hybrids. It controls 25-35% of the disease and increased cost of cultivation. Hence, early blight disease resistant hybrid Arka Abhed was tested against private hybrid in KVK, Karimnagar operational area. Data on disease incidence was collected at 15, 30, 60, 90,120 DAP in all the hybrids. The data revealed that Arka abhed recorded significantly very lower incidence of early blight disease than private hybrid during all crop growth stages. It recorded 1.5% early blight incidence whereas private hybrid recorded 32.4%. Reduced number of sprayings to control early blight disease were also significantly low i.e. two sprays were carried out whereas in private hybrid seven sprays were done during in rainy period. According to yield Arka Abhed recorded 68.3t/ha whereas it was 58.6t/ha in private hybrid. The peduncle in green in colour for long days and taste also same for all the days in storage period for 8-12 days in Arka Abhed. Average fruit weight is 86 gr to 112 grams were recorded.