Crop residues of each crop collected after harvesting were
chopped up and soaked in sterile distilled water for one hour.
Hundred gram of residue of different crops were filled in the
Petri dishes (150 x 25 mm diameter) in three replicates. For
the control treatment 100 g black soil was used. After
sterilization in an autoclave, it was cooled down and 100
sclerotia were placed superficially onto residues and
incubated in a BOD incubator at 28±1°C. Observations on
germination of sclerotia was recorded at an interval of 24
hours (up to 10 days).
To study the number and size of sclerotia, another set
of Petri dishes having finely crushed crop residue were
inoculated with 5 mm disc excised from 5-days old culture of
S. rolfsii and incubated at 28±1°C. The number of sclerotia
per plate was counted after 20 days of incubation. Diameter
of 10 sclerotia was measured. The data from the three
replicated plates were averaged.