MITIGATING POSTHARVEST LOSSES CAUSED BY ANTHRACNOSE DISEASE IN MANGO BY USING BIO AGENTS, BOTANICALS AND ISR CHEMICALS

Anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides is the major pre- and postharvest disease in mango. To reduce fungicide usage in the management of anthracnose disease, eco-friendly alternative methods such as biocontrol agents, botanicals and ISR chemicals were evaluated. Native microbial isolates were collected from mango canopy and evaluated along with commercially available biocontrol products against C. gloeosporioides in vitro. Among the 14 isolates of fungi, bacteria and yeast, the native isolate of Trichoderma viride (Tv1) collected from mango leaves recorded maximum growth reduction of C. gloeosporioides and this isolate was compatible with commonly used non systemic fungicides such as copper oxychloride, mancozeb and propineb in mango. However, all the isolates were highly sensitive to systemic fungicides carbendazim and hexaconazole even at low concentrations. Among different botanicals tested against the anthracnose pathogen eucalyptus oil at 1 and 0.5% recorded 100% control of C. gloeosporioides mycelia growth. In the group of inducing systemic resistance (ISR) chemicals preharvest spraying of salicylic acid at 100 ppm recorded maximum disease reduction compared to control treatment. To reduce the postharvest anthracnose disease losses in mango fruits, different combinations of treatments were tried, of them the minimum disease incidence of (14.8%) was recorded in the treatment (T7), which received the preharvest spraying with salicylic acid (100 ppm), followed by postharvest fruit dip in eucalyptus oil (1%) followed by Trichoderma viride (2%) reduced 56.6% anthracnose incidence over control.