Isolation and Cultural, Morphological Characterization of Sclerotium rolfsii Causing Seedling Blight in Rice

In Telangana state, India, around June 2021, the seedling blight of rice was seen in nursery beds 10 days after sowing (DAS). Sclerotium rolfsii was the disease's causative agent. Infected plant samples were gathered in farmer's paddy nurseries in the Telangana state of India during kharif 2021 as part of the Rice Production Oriented Survey (POS) in farmer fields in Katkur (Village), Akkannapeta (Mandal), Siddipet (District). The farmer uses a seed called PAN 152 from a private company. The affected rice seedlings showed the typical signs of soft rot, yellowing and white cottony mould growth. Spherical-shaped dark brown sclerotial bodies were also seen in the basal stem region of the infected seedlings. Cultural and morphological identification was done for identifying the microbe.