Etiology, impact and control of rhizoctonia seedling blight and root rot of chickpea on the Canadian prairies

Studies were undertaken to assess the impact of seedling blight and root rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani AG-4 on nodulation and seed yield of chickpea. The effects of pathogen inoculum concentration and seed damage on disease severity were also measured. Chickpea seedlings were grown under controlled-environment conditions in sterilized soil amended with pathogenic isolates of R. solani and in field plot experiments where the inoculum was incorporated with the seed at planting. In greenhouse experiments, emergence and dry matter production declined and root rot severity increased with increasing inoculum concentration. Root rot reduced nodulation where lesions covered more than 25% of the root surface. For chickpea cultivar Sanford this level of infection was sufficient to reduce root mass, but for the cultivar Tyson, more than half of the root was covered with lesions before root mass began to decline. In a comparison of seed treatment fungicides, thiram + carbathiin (Vitaflo 280) and carbathiin + thiabendazole (Crown at 6 mL of product kg(-1) seed) significantly increased seedling emergence and seed yield compared to the inoculated control. In an assessment of the effects of seed damage, seedling survival and seed yield were similar for both healthy and mechanically damaged seed. Rhizoctonia solani has the potential to be an important constraint to chickpea production in the prairie region of western Canada.