Management of Chili leaf curl disease (ChiLCD) through resistant germplasm and Nutrients in relation to Environmental Factors

The aim of present study was to evaluate the selected germplasm against chili leaf curl virus disease (ChiLCVD) and its management through nutrients. The chili varieties i.e., Zinia F1, Desi (Jalalpuri), Desi (Jalalpuri 2), Wonder Hot, Summer Queen F1 and Faisalabad Selection was evaluated against the ChiLCVD. After screening, Wonder Hot and Summer Queen F1 showed moderately resistant (MR) response whereas, 3 varieties i.e., Zinia F1, Desi (Jalalpuri) and Desi (Jalalpuri 2) had a moderately susceptible (MS) response and only a single variety (Faisalabad Selection) expressed resistant (R) response. Four varieties; Desi (Jalalpuri), Desi (Jalalpuri 2), Zinia F1 and Wonder Hot, were used for management experiment with 4 nutrients combinations, T1 (ZnSO4 + CuSO4), T2 (MnSO4 + CuSO4), T3 (Boric Acid + CuSO4) and T4 (ZnSO4 + CuSO4 + MnSO4 + Boric Acid). When compared to control (58.14%), only T4 demonstrated minimum disease severity (11.63%). In case of disease incidence, T4 gave the best results with minimum disease incidence (35.65%) as compared to control (92.59%). Treatments reduced disease progression even during favorable environmental conditions. There was significant (p?0.05) but positive correlation between wind speed and disease severity. Wind speed was highly correlated with the disease severity of variety Wonder Hot (r=0.91). It could be concluded that the application of nutrients activates the plant defense system and at suppress the vector infestation. Keywords: Management, Nutrients, Whitefly, Epidemiology.