1Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Hisar, Haryana, India
*Corresponding author: kishorkumarc786@hau.ac.in (ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1250-9464)
Online Published on 27 July, 2023.
Tomato is an economically crucial nutritious vegetable crop grown in various states of our country, including Haryana. Its nursery is raised to get seedlings for transplanting in the main field. The nursery seedlings are adversely affected by damping off disease which is caused by several fungal species. In the present investigation, the evaluation of native Trichoderma spp. and copper-enriched fermented whey preparation was studied in the laboratory, as well as nursery conditions for the management of fungal pathogen responsible for damping off disease. The associated pathogen was isolated from diseased tomato seedlings and identified as F. oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici on the basis of cultural and morphological characters as well as through pathogenicity. Out of forty-three soil samples, five samples showed the presence of Trichoderma sp. These isolates were identified as T. harzianum, T. viride and Trichoderma sp. based on cultural and morphological characteristics. The antagonists could inhibit the mycelia growth of the pathogen in the range of 52.89 to 61.17%, and copper-enriched fermented whey preparation showed 42.28% inhibition. Among Trichoderma isolates, T. harzianum exhibited higher inhibition as compared to T. viride. Native T. harzianum was assessed through soil application, seed treatment, drenching, enrichment of farmyard manure as well as vermicompost. Copper-enriched fermented whey preparation was also taken as one of the treatments. The results showed that the antagonist was efficient in managing the disease in terms of lower disease incidence than the control. Damping-off incidence ranged from 4.35 to 9.76 percent in antagonist applied treatments, which was lower than in control (20.48%). The second preparation was also better than control, where the incidence of disease was 10.47%.
• Native T. harzianum and copper enriched fermented whey preparation efficiently manage tomato damping-off disease under different conditions.
Tomato, Nursery, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopercici, Damping off, Trichoderma harzianum, T. viride, Copper enriched fermented whey preparation, Mycelia growth inhibition, Disease management
