Induced resistance to mitigate phomopsis blight of brinjal using inorganic chemicals

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of various resistance-inducing chemicals against phomopsis blight disease of brinjal at the Department of Plant Pathology, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India, during the kharif season of 2019. The experiment involved seed treatment and foliar application of sodium phosphate, sodium chloride, potassium phosphate, and silicon dioxide with two concentrations (25mM and 50mM), along with ferric chloride at concentrations of 5mM and 10mM. Results after physical and biochemical analysis showed that these chemicals significantly improved growth parameters, reduced infections, increased total proteins and phenol levels, and decreased disease severity. A negative correlation (r) was observed between total phenol content and disease severity, as well as between soluble protein and disease severity. Specifically, treatment with ferric chloride @5mM significantly reduced disease severity (from 59.20 to 19.09%) and exhibited positive effects on various traits. Therefore, it found suitable to be highly recommended.