Onion purple blotch caused by the fungus Alternaria porri is a major yield limiting factor in onion growing area. A survey was conducted to assess purple blotch disease severity in onion during kharif 2019 in Nashik district. The purple blotch disease severity ranged from to per cent. The highest disease severity noticed in Satana tahasil () and lowest disease intensity was recorded in Nandgaon tahasil () during kharif 2019. The highest purple blotch of onion was followed by Deola ( %), Niphad (), Malegaon(), Chandwad (), Yeola () and Sinnar (), respectively It was observed that purple blotch of onion is a major problem in Nashik district of Maharashtra. Maximum severity of purple blotch was recorded due to climatic conditions vi., high relative humidity (80 to 90 %) and optimum temperature (24+2 0C), mono cropping, existence of inoculum of previous crop in particular location and cultivation of same or local varieties in larger scale. Diseased samples were collected from the surveyed field to record disease severity and utilised for isolation of pathogen. On the basis of isolation and morphological study, the pathogen was identified as Alternaria porri (Ellis) Cif. The Alternaria porri was observed in morphological studies in all tahasils of Nashik district during survey carried out in kharif -2019. | Survey of purple blotch of onion (Alternaria porri) in major onion growing area in Nashik, India
