ABSTRACT
In India, small cardamom is mainly cultivated in the southern states of India mainly Kerala (60%), Karnataka (30%), and Tamil Nadu (10%). On other hand, large cardamom is one of the most important spice crops cultivated in the eastern part of India, i.e., sub-Himalayan states of Sikkim, Darjeeling, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Under cultural control, cardamom seeds should be sown in the month of August to September in order to ensure sufficient seedling growth so that they develop the capacity to tolerate the disease incidence. Environmental and human factors are more adverse in the large cardamom-growing pockets of Sikkim. As per farmers, representation, the planting materials of the cultivar, would have carried the inoculum, or else the alien/new cultivar would have been more susceptible to the native pathogen. Leaf rust is often seen on the mature leaves as whitish powdery pustules on the undersurface of the leaves with corresponding yellow necrotic patches on the upper surfaces.
