Abstract:
Purpose : The development of new resistant pathogen races is increasing the concern of food safety and
the environments are driving new search for alternative disease management strategies. This study was
conducted to evaluate the effect of inorganic salts on wheat stem rust under in-vitro and in-vivo conditions.
Research Method : Inorganic salts were evaluated on their effect on the percentage uredospore germination,
pustule number and pustule length of Pucciniagraminisf.sp. tritici at different concentrations, in-vitro and invivo .All the data were subjected to analysis of variance using SAS version 9.1.3 software. The least significant
difference at 5% level of significance was used to separate treatment means.
Findings : There was a significant (P < 0.05) difference among inorganic salts and their concentrations on
the germination of Pgturedospores, in-vitro. Potassium carbonate completely inhibited the germination of
Pgturedospores (100%) at all concentrations (i.e. 10, 15, and 20 gl-1) followed by potassium bicarbonate,
sodium bicarbonate and ammonium bicarbonate with inhibitions of 99.7, 97.33 and 97%, respectively.
The lowest inhibition of spore germination was recorded from potassium dihydrogen phosphate (6.7%)
and potassium chloride (9.3%) at 5 gl-1. The in-vivo study showed that six inorganic salts significantly
(P < 0.05) reduced the number of pustules and pustule lengths on susceptible wheat cultivar ‘McNair’.
Originality / Value : The present study identified potassium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate as the
best inorganic salts to manage wheat stem rust.
