Slow mildewing resistance in cultivar DPP-68 of garden pea in Himachal Pradesh, India

Powdery mildewis a very important disease of garden pea in Himachal Pradesh, India. Currently grown cultivars such as Lincoln, Bonneville and Arkel are highly susceptible to the disease. The Vegetable Breeders of Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, India have developed a high yielding garden pea cultivars DPP-68. In initial experiments this cultivar showed slow development of the disease.Detailed investigations were carried out to compare powdery mildew development on DPP-68 with that on the highly susceptible cultivars Dark Skinned Perfection and Lincoln. A comparison of the disease progress curves showed that DPP-68 is a slow mildewer and Dark Skinned Perfection and Lincoln are fast mildewers. The infection rates calculated by Logistic and Gompertz models and AUDPC values were significantly less for DPP-68 than for Dark Skinned Perfection and Lincoln. The incubation/latent period was longer for DPP-68 as compared to Dark Skinned Perfection and Lincoln. Sporulation as represented by numbers of 'conidiophores bearing conidia' per colony and size of colonies were less on DPP-68 than on Dark Skinned Perfection and Lincoln. Thus, field and laboratory experiments clearly showed that DPP68 possesses slow mildewing resistance.

Keywords:

• Garden Pea
• Erysiphe Pisi
• Slow Mildewing