Interaction between Meloidogyne incognita and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. Cicri at different inoculum levels on chickpea*

Inoculation with Meloidogyne incognita and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceri alone adversely affected the growth of chickpea cv. Annegiri-1. The reduction of plant growth characters and severity of root-knot and wilt incidence were more with increased levels of nematode and fungus inoculum and the interaction effects were more in combination than either of them alone. Inoculation of nematode along with fungus at lower levels resulted in 19.88 per cent wilt incidence when compared to 6.66 per cent with fungus alone. However, maximum wilt incidence (66.67%) was observed when inoculated with 2 juveniles/g soil and 25g inoculum/500g soil of nematode and fungus respectively. Presence of root-knot nematode along with fungus adversely affected the root-knot disease.