Relationship between mineral nutrition of muskmelon and development of downy mildew caused byPseudoperonospora cubensis

Summary Sand culture technique was used to study the relationship between mineral nutrition of muskmelon and development of downy mildew. Different levels of nutritioni.e. normal, one fifth of normal, lack of all nutrients, and six solutions of unbalanced nutritioni.e. high nitrogen, low nitrogen, high phosphorus, low phosphorus, high potash and low potash were used. Development of downy mildew was greater on the plants grown in one fifth of normal nutrition. The disease development was less on the plants grown in high phosphorus, low potash and high nitrogen nutrition solutions. Nutrition of the host also affected the sporulability of downy mildew fungus. However, there was no correlation between disease intensity and sporulation.