Amit Walia , J. C. Kaushik , O. P. Toky

Abstract

A. two years survey of Dalbergia sissoo plantations in arid zone of Haryana, India revealed nearly 29% mortality of D. sissoo trees, being maximum among roadside plantations. The medium girth class (50-100 cm) trees exhibited maximum mortality and most of declined trees were prone to water stress conditions. Nearly 25% declined trees had calcareous pan in their ischolar_main zone. The analysis of soil physico-chemical properties beneath healthy and declined trees exposed significantly high pH and electrical conductivity in sites having declined sissoo trees. While N, P, K, Mg contents of soil were recorded significantly higher beneath healthy trees. Significant reduction in the amount of N, P, K and Fe accumulation in foliage of declined trees as compared to healthy trees was also observed.

Keywords

Dalbergia sissoo, Mortality, Edaphic Factors, Arid Zone, Haryana

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J. C. Kaushik , Sanjay Arya , N. N. Tribathi

Abstract

Damping off in forest nurseries is one of the most serious and widely spread diseases throughout the world. Sometimes it causes more than 90 percent seedling mortality under favourable conditions. Four biocontrol agents were evaluated against the 12 pathogenic fungi under laboratory conditions by following dual culture plate technique. Both the fungal biocontrol agents checked more than 50 percent growth of all the pathogens. Pseudomonas fluorescens was more effective than Bacillus subtilis. However, B. subtilis effectively controlled the growth of R. solani and F. moniliforme.

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N. Kaushik , J. C. Kaushik , S. Nautiyall

Abstract

Genetic parameters in seed morphology, germination, seedling growth and biochemical contents of seed traits in Azadirachta indica collected from different parts of Haryana, India were assessed. The 'F' values for all the characters studied were significant (P<0.05), indicating the presence of ample genetic variation for all characters. The estimated coefficient of variance ranged from 1.93 to 8.73 per cent. The genetic advance, as percentage of means ranged from 21.29 per cent for seed breadth to 88.27 per cent for ischolar_main length. The other characters viz. collar diameter (73.56 %) and shoot length also showed high values for genetic advance as percentage of mean High heritability (99.00%) and genetic gain were recorded for 100-seed weight, seed germination, shoot length, palmitic acid and stearic acid indicating the additive gene action. Seed size (length and breadth) and 100-seed weight was significantly and positively correlated with oil content, positively correlated with azadirachtin content, palmitic acid and oleic acid, however negatively correlated with steric acid and myrstic acid. Considering seed morphology, germination, azairachtin content and quantitative and qualitative characters of oil, the best performing plus trees were,T6 (Kurukshetra) of the Karnal , T6 (Pinjore II) from Panchkula, (T6) from Premnagar of Bhiwani and tree (T4) from Jhatipur of Sonipat provenance.

Keywords

Azadirachta indica, Genotypic Coefficient of Variation(GCV), phenotypic Coefficient of Variation(PCV), Azadirachtin, Seed Morphology

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