Exploitation of Compost Amended Biological Agents for the Management of Vascular Wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici) in Tomato Shanmugapackiam S.1,*, Parthasarathy S.1, Jebaraj Daniel M.1, Christopher David John2 1Department of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003 2Department of Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Chidambaram-608002 *email: spmpatho@gmail.com
Online published on 15 December, 2016. Abstract Bacterial and fungal biocontrol agents were isolated from different agro ecosystems of Tamil Nadu, and were investigated for their efficacy against the vascular wilt pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici of tomato under in vitro, glasshouse and field conditions. Pseudomonas fluorescens strains applied to seed, soil and foliage or as a seedling dip significantly reduced Fusarium wilt with a concomitant increase in growth promotion in both the glasshouse and field. Compatibility of biocontrol strains were tested, all the strains of P. fluorescens were compatible with all the strains of Trichoderma and Bacillus. Among the various compost tested, coir pith compost provedbest in enhancing the plant growth promotion of tomato seedlings. Further, the combination of P. fluorescens strains Pf1 and T. viride 1 was more effective in reducing fusarium wilt disease in tomato compared to individual strains under glasshouse and field conditions. The present study revealed the probable influence of antagonism and plant growth promotion by the mixture of Pseudomonas bioformulations in enhancing the disease resistance in tomato against fusarium wilt disease. Top Keywords Bio-control, Compost, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Tomato. Vascular wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum. Top |