In vitro antifungal bioefficacy of microbes present in panchgavya against major soil borne pathogens

Species of Bacillus, Serratia and Actinomycetes present in Panchgavya were evaluated at different concentrations for their antifungal activity against mycelial growth inhibition of Rhizoctonia solani, Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum and Sclerotium rolfsii -major soil borne fungal pathogens. In vitro evaluation of Bacillus-I, Bacillus-II, Bacillus-III, Serratia and Actinomycetes at different concentrations ranging from 10⁻¹ to 10⁻⁵, revealed Bacillus-I as strongly inhibitory to mycelial growth of R. solani, F. solani, F. oxysporum and S. rolfsii at all concentrations. Bacillus-II possessed good antifungal activity against F. solani and F. oxysporum and no inhibition in mycelial growth of R. solani, S. rolfsii, R. solani and F. solani were more and F. oxysporum less sensitive to Bacillus-III. Similarly, Actinomycetous isolate caused 99% inhibition in mycelial growth of F. solani, F. oxysporum and R. solani but was found less effective against S. rolfsii. Serratia sp. at all tested concentrations was found equally effective in inhibiting the mycelial growth of all the test pathogens. Also, with a decrease in concentration of microbes corresponding increase in mycelial growth was noticed. A positive relation was noticed with dilution, OD values, cfu and per cent inhibition in mycelial growth of the test pathogens. All the test pathogens showed variable sensitivity to test bacteria and Actinomycetes as evidenced from their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values which ranged between 1:10 to 1:10⁵.