Resistant and susceptible response of finger millet to seedling blast (pyricularia grisea sacc.)

25 accessions of finger millet, 20 from Parbat and 5 from Khotang, were experimented at nursery stage in randomized complete block design at Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS), Rampur, Chitwan from July 2015 to September 2015 to identify the resistance response against seedling blast. Inoculation was done by piling up of diseased leaves in trenches between the beds. Ten plants from each plot were tagged randomly and disease severity was assessed by scoring on a 0-9 scale for 4 times at 6 days interval from 22 days after sowing (DAS) onwards. Dry root and shoot weights of the tagged plants were measured on 43 DAS to access plant biomass. Three accessions failed to geminate. Final disease severity was found to be highest in NGRC05161 (58.5%) and lowest in NGRC05146 (39.3%). Based on total AUDPC, NGRC05143 (664) was found to be least susceptible to seedling blast while NGRC05164 (895) was most susceptible. Disease severity increased upto 34 DAS and decreased thereafter. AUDPC showed continuous increase in decreasing rate. Shoot weight was found to be negatively correlated to mean AUDPC whereas root÷shoot ratio was positively correlated. Three accessions were categorized as moderately susceptible and rest as susceptible to seedling blast. Accessions collected from Khotang were in general more susceptible to blast than those from Parbat district.