Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is an important cash crop grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of India but the productivity of sugarcane is low as compare to other cane growing countries of the world due to several biotic and abiotic factors. Among the biotic factors, red rot disease of sugarcane caused by Colletotrichum falcatum is serious fungal disease affecting sugarcane stalks, the most economical part of the sugarcane. To find out the impact of different dates of inoculation and evaluation of sugarcane varieties against red rot disease of sugarcane, an experiment was carried out at Pusa farm, Sugarcane Research Institute, RPCAU, Pusa during the crop season of 2018-19. The suitable time of inoculation was tested, starting from 26^th July at ten days intervals, the infection was maximum (8.4, 8.2, 7.8) in variety (CoSe 95422, CoS 8436 and CoSe 92423) respectively, when the inoculations were carried out in the last week of August (25^th August) whereas, the least infection 5.2, 5.2 and 5.0 was recorded in variety CoSe 95422, CoS 8436 and CoSe 92423 respectively, when the canes were inoculated in last week of July (26^th July). It might be due to period coincide with high humidity and warm weather with frequent rainfall. Out of fifty-one varieties evaluated, none of the variety was found resistant when canes were inoculated with CF 07 isolate. Whereas, six sugarcane varieties were found resistant when canes were inoculated with CF 08 isolate.

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