Abstract

Bamboos have emerged as the most important non-wood forest produce because of their fast growth, adaptability, and myriads of end uses. In Kerala, so far 3, 400 ha have been planted with bamboos under different afforestation programmes. Since, sporadic as well as gregarious flowering of bamboos occur, seeds serve as the source of propagule for raising the planting stock. Bare root and container seedlings are found to be affected with various diseases in the nursery. Of the 13 seedling diseases recorded in bamboo nursery, web blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani was most wide-spread and economically important disease. The disease was influenced greatly by the microclimatic conditions in the nursery viz., soil moisture, ambient temprature, relative humidity, incident light over the seed-beds and also seedling density. Both disease incidence and severity assessed, in terms of area under disease progress curve (AUDPC) taking into account number of infection foci and diseased