Status of Alternaria Leaf Blotch on Apple under Kashmir Conditions

Abstract

Alternarialeaf blotch (Alternaria maliRoberts) of apple is one of the major fungal diseases in all the apple growing regions of the world. Although the disease was previously of minor economic importance in Kashmir valley, it has now attained the status of one of the major diseases of apple.The frequent epidemics of Alternaria leaf blotch have been witnessed in Kashmir, inflicting heavy losses. As most of the commercial apple cultivars are susceptible to this disease, orchardists mainly rely on frequent fungicide applications for its management. Four districts of the valley viz., Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Srinagar were surveyed to record the status of Alternaria leaf blotch disease of apple. The disease was prevalent in all the districts surveyed with an overall disease incidence and intensity of 55.59 and 33.16, respectively. The highest disease incidence and intensity were recorded in district Kulgam and least in district Shopian. What is the significance of your research (our significance is to record the disease incidence and intensity of major apple growing belts of jammu and Kashmir because maximum apple growers are unnable to manage the disease from last six years moreover in this study we observed were growers are lacking to controll disease ? Did you try to suggest a means of solving this problem (yes sir in this study we observed that why most of the apple growers are unable to manage this major foliar disease? What is the contribution of your research to knowledge in Science? (our contribution of research in science is to provide the management capsule for controlling Alternaria leaf blotch of apple.