The present systematic research on cultural, morphological, and pathogenic variability was carried out on eighty isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum collected from major common bean production belts of North Kashmir. The isolates were found to vary in both cultural and morphological characteristics such as colony color and type, colony diameter, number of days for sclerotia initiation, sclerotia number per plate, sclerotial weight, and size. The colony color ranged between white and off-white with the majority. The colony was of three types, in majority smooth, some fluffy, and a few fluffy-at-center-only. Colony diameter ranged between 15.33 mm and 29 mm after 24 h of incubation. The isolates took 4 to 7 days for initiation of sclerotia and varied in size, weight, and number per plate ranging between 14 and 51.3. The sclerotial arrangement pattern on plates was peripheral, sub peripheral, peripheral, and subperipheral, arranged at the rim and scattered. A total of 22 Mycelial compatibility groups (MCGs) were formed with seven groups constituted by a single isolate. The isolates within MCGs were mostly at par with each other. The six isolates representing six MCGs showed variability in pathogenicity with isolate G04 as the most and B01 as the least virulent. The colony diameter and disease scores were positively correlated. Sclerotia were observed to germinate both myceliogenically and carpogenically under natural temperate conditions of Kashmir. Germplasm screening revealed a single resistant line and eleven partially resistant lines against most virulent isolates.

The present study was aimed to assess the status of Phomopsis blight and fruit rot, caused by Phomopsis vexans, in Kashmir (India), for which 27 sites in 3 districts (Bandipora, Baramulla and Ganderbal) were selected. The mean of three fields represented disease incidence and intensity of respective site. Nine plants each from 4 corners and centre of each field were randomly selected and their leaves, stem and fruits examined for disease incidence and intensity. The overall mean incidence and intensity of leaf blight, fruit rot and stemblightwere 48.1 and 15.1%, 41.7 and 18.4%, and 21.4 and 6.2%, respectively. The maximum disease incidence and intensity on leaves, fruit and stem were 64.4 and 22.2%, 55.2 and 27.6%, and 31.8 and 10.1%, respectively, observedindistrict Baramulla. The minimum disease incidence and intensity on leaves (30.9 and 8.2%,), fruits (27.8 and 9.9%) and stem (12.9 and 3.1%) were observed in district Ganderbal.