Author(s):
Field experiment was conducted at Wonji shoa sugar estate, to evaluate the effectiveness of different smut inoculation techniques on expressing the smut disease symptom and its effect on sugarcane bud sprout and tiller population. Three sugarcane smut inoculation techniques (dip inoculation, wound paste and paste without wound) were evaluated using three sugarcane varieties having known smut reaction group. The treatment combinations were arranged in factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data on number of smut whips, incidence, sprout and tillers count was recorded. Individual analysis of variance was performed using the SAS Statistical Software package. Analysis of variance for the field experiment indicated that there was no interaction between variety and inoculation techniques for all dependent variables. However, both smut inoculation techniques and varieties were significantly affect the smut incidence and sprout while there effect on tiller population was non-significant. On average the wound paste method was found to be superior on whip production and percent infected stools (21.37) over the dip and paste without wound methods of inoculation. On the other hand, the dip and paste without wound technique of inoculation showed non-significant difference for their mean percent smut infected stools while they remain significant on whip production per hectare. Among the sugarcane varieties evaluated, smut resistant variety showed statistically significant difference for mean percent smut infected stools. Among the smut inoculation techniques were under the test, on average plot received wound paste showed the lowest (44.77%) percent sprout as compared to paste without wound and dip techniques of inoculation. Since the wound paste techniques of inoculation outsmart in mean percent smut incidence and whip production over dip and paste methods, it was recommended to be used for screening of sugarcane variety/s for smut resistance.
