Evaluation of botanicals and fungicides against seed borne fungi and germination of rough lemon seeds

Abstract

Citrus fruits are grown all over the world, including Pakistan. However, the poor storage conditions for citrus seeds in tropical and sub-tropical regions compromise their viability during growth. In this study, M. olifera (Moringa) and A. niger (Neem) leaves were used as seed coating agents and were utilized for the first time without any deep treatment of such leaves with an objective to reduce the cost of botanical fungicides and to control the harmful effects of synthetic fungicides. Topsin-M, a synthetic fungicide, was used as a reference compound to compare the results of fungicides from botanical sources than that of a traditionally available synthetic fungicide. Three different concentration of fungicide solutions (C1, C2 and C3), that were coated on the surface of seeds for different duration of time (8, 10 and 12h), were prepared. It was observed that the coating of seeds with fungicides, either botanical or synthetic, significantly improved the horticultural (germination %age and number of days required for germination) and pathological (fungi %age and number of contaminated seeds) parameters of rough lemon, as compare to control or non-coated seed samples. It is expected that the findings of this study will promote the use of botanicals as seed coating agent as they are readily available to famers and are also acceptable for the cultivation of organic crops.