In vitro evaluation of fungicides against Alternaria helianthi causing leaf blight of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.)

Leaf blight (Alternaria helianthi) of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is an important disease and leads to loss of yield and quality of oil. An in vitro experiment was conducted using poison food technique to evaluate the efficacy of captan and carbendazim at different concentrations against A. helianthi. Captan @ 0.3% significantly inhibited the mycelial growth (76.68%) of A. helianthi, followed by captan @ 0.2% (71.65%), captan @ 0.1% (59.65%), carbendazim 0.3% (43.88%), carbendazim 0.2% (37.88%), carbendazim 0.1% (30.22%) as compared to control (0%) at 288 hours after inoculation.