07-08-2013, 01:13 PM
Management of tomato wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici with Trichoderma spp.
ABSTRACT
Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crop affected by many diseases. Tomato wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici is one of the severe disease causes heavy losses (20-100%) depending upon stage of infection and wilting. Minimizing this disease can only be accomplished by careful crop management. In this context an investigation was conducted to diminish Fusarial wilt of tomato by three different isolates of bio control agents viz. Trichoderma viride, T. harzianum and T. virens. All the fungal biocontrol agents were found effective against fusarial wilt under “in vitro” and “in vivo” conditions. Among them T. viride isolate 2 was observed as most effective which inhibited the radial growth of F .oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici 36.5% after four days and after eight days with 73.5% over uninoculated control. Under “in vivo” seed treatment with T. viride isolate 3 @4g/kg was highly effective in the management of wilt disease. The pooled data of both the years showed that the minimum wilt incidence (7.42%) was recorded with T. viride isolate 3 and the maximum root length (8.70cm), shoot length (20.12cm), root weight (3.43g) and shoot weight (11.15g) was also recorded with the same treatment.