1-MCP and Methyl jasmonateas an alternative to 6-BAP for enhance postharvest shelf life of commercial vegetables in ecofriendly and economical manner

Induced resistance refers to the induced state of plants triggered by chemical or biological inducers, which in turn protects other non-exposed plant parts against the expected future attack by herbivorous insects. Any compound that is used to trigger the induced response of the plant is called elicitors. The idea is to keep the plant ready for the pest attack before it is actually exposed to the herbivores damage. Serpentine leaf miner Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) is one of the major pests of cucumber under greenhouse condition. In the current study Pseudomonas fluorescens is tried as a elicitor in order to trigger the induced response of the cucumber plants against the leafminers. Pseudomonas fluorescens IOF 1 strain was sprayed on the parthenocarpic cucumber plants that were grown under greenhouse conditions at the rate of 5g/ litre. Spray was given before the beginning of actual attack of the leafminers just after twelve days after the opening of cotyledon leaves. It was found that the average number of leafminings recorded on the P. fluorescens treated plants were lesser (0.79 mines/ leaf) than the untreated control plot (1.99 mines/ leaf). And also up to three weeks P. fluorescens sprayed cucumber plants were free from any leafminers. Brief explanation of the present study is explained in this paper.