Antifungal Efficacy of Plant Extracts and Chemicals against Alternaria Leaf Spot Disease of Spinach

Abstract
| To check the efficacy of fungicides and plant extracts against leaf spot disease of spinach caused by Alternaria alternata five plant extracts and five fungicides were evaluated under in vitro and field conditions by using complete randomized design (CRD) and randomized complete block design (RCBD) . In plant extracts moringa ( Moringa oleifera ) showed minimum fungal growth (20.790) mm followed by ginger ( Zingiber officinale ) (25.910), garlic ( Allium sativum ) (28.087), neem ( Azadirachta indica ) (29.010) and aloevera ( Aloe barbadensis miller ) (29.538) mm as compared to control plates, while in chemicals Tilt showed minimum fungal growth (7.982) followed by Score (10.865), Antracol (11.395), Radomil Gold (11.965) and Blue Copper (14.390) mm as compared to control. In the greenhouse, the most effective fungicide and plant extract were applied as tilt and moringa alone and their combination. The plants treated with tilt + moringa was found effective as compared to alone applications. tilt + moringa showed minimum disease incidence (15%) followed by Tilt (18.33%) and moringa (32.33%) as compared to control. While under the field conditions same combination of Tilt + moringa expressed minimum disease incidence (18%) followed by tilt (20.83%) and moringa (34.50%). By these findings it is recommended to farmers that, Alternaria leaf spot disease of spinach can be managed by using tilt fungicide and moringa extract.