Major Sorghum diseases are given below:-
1.Sorghum Head Smut: Sphacelotheca reiliana
Symptoms:
- The entire ear head is either completely or partially replaced by a large whitish gall.
- The spores are blown away, exposing the dark filaments
Management:
- In the areas where the disease occurs commonly, the best practice is to plant resistant cultivars
- Seed treatment with Carboxin (Vitavax) @ 2g/kg of seed.
- Collect smutted ear heads in cloth bags and dip in boiling water to remove inoculum.
2.Sorghum Covered Kernel Smut: Sphacelotheca sorghi
Symptoms:
- The individual grains are replaced by smut sori. Sori are covered with creamy skin. Sori can be localised at a particular part of the head or can occur over the entire inflorescence.
- Ratoon crops exhibit a higher disease incidence
Management:
- Seed treatment with Carboxin (Vitavax) @ 2g/kg or Captan/Thiram 4g/kg of seed.
- Collect smutted ear heads in cloth bags and destruct by dipping in boiling water.
- Avoid rationing
3.Sorghum Long Smut: Tolyposporium ehrenbergii
Symptoms:
- The relatively small proportion of the florets is infected.
- The sori or spore sacs are cylindrical, elongate, usually slightly curved with a relatively thick creamy-brown covering membrane.
Management:
- Seed treatment with Carboxin (Vitavax) @ 2g/kg or Captan/Thiram 4g/kg of seed.
- Collect smutted ear heads in cloth bags and destruct by dipping in boiling water.
- Avoid rationing.
4.Sorghum Loose smut: Sphacelotheca cruenta
Symptoms:
- The sori, which vary in length from 3 to 18 mm, is the solid long black (often curved) pointed columella which extends almost the full length of the sorus and which remains conspicuous after the smut spores have been blown away.
Management:
- Seed treatment with Carboxin (Vitavax) @ 2g/kg or Captan/Thiram 4g/kg of seed.
- Collect smutted earheads in cloth bags and destruct by dipping in boiling water.
- Avoid rationing.
5.Sorghum Downy Mildew: Peronosclerospora sorghi
Symptoms:
- Abundant downy white growth is produced nocturnally on the under surfaces of infected portions of leaves during humid weather
Management:
- Rogue infected plants up to 45 days of sowing
- Spray any one of the fungicides like Metalaxyl + Mancozeb 500 g or Mancozeb 1000g/ha after noticing the symptoms of foliar diseases, for both transplanted and direct sown crops.
6.Sorghum Rust: Puccinia purpurea
Symptom:
- The pustules are elliptical and parallel with the leaf veins.
- In highly susceptible cultivars the pustules occur so densely that almost the entire leaf tissue is destroyed.
Management:
- Spray Mancozeb at 1kg/ha. Repeat fungicidal application after 10 days
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
