The crop is attacked by a number of diseases such as Alternaria leaf blight, Cercospora leaf spot, powdery mildew, downy mildew and anthracnose, amongst which Alternaria leaf blight caused by Alternaria cucumerina is found to cause serious losses throughout Rajasthan and other states. The incidence and severity of Alternaria blight in bottle gourd fields is greatly influenced by temperature, relative humidity, soil condition at the time of planting, splashing rain, wind velocity, leaf wetness and inoculum density available in the soil (Meena et al., 2004). |