Interactive Effects of Meloidogyne incognita and Macrophomina phaseolina on Lentil

A pot experiment was conducted to study the interaction of Meloidogyne incognita and Macrophomina phaseolina on lentil under greenhouse conditions, using various combinations of the each pathogen. Reductions in plant growth, yield, nodulation and chlorophyll content were found to be greater and significant in simultaneous inoculations, and when the plants were inoculated with M. incognita 10 days prior to M. phaseolina. The nematode multiplication was adversely affected when fungus was inoculated prior to nematode. Lower but significant reductions were noticed when plants were inoculated separately with M. incognita and M. phaseolina where M. previous one proved to be more aggressive pathogen than the later.