Symptoms

• Young plants show soft, water soaked lesion on the stem near soil level, the cotyledons wither and the plant eventually falls over and perishes.
• When infection occurs at a later stage of growth, the lower part shows discoloration over a length of several centimeters, becomes hard and woody, and thinner than usual as the cortical tissue dies and this phenomenon is known as wire stem.

Management

• Nursery beds: Soil drenching with Methyl bromide @ 1 kg/10 m 2 and covered with polythene sheet.
• Seed treatment with Captan/Thiram 4g/kg, followed by seed treatment with Trichoderma viride 4g/kg.