Study of Correlation Between Plant Pathogen, Antagonist and Micronutrients in Soils of Kolhapur District

The Plant pathogens and antagonists were isolated along with analysis of available micronutrients from physiographically different soil types of Kolhapur district. The fungi, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium sp., Macrophomina phaseolina and Sclerotium rolfsii were the plant pathogens isolated. In this, Aspergillus niger was isolated from Shiware, Kodekhurd and Kondvan locations samples with 2 x 10⁵, 7 x 10⁵ and 11 x 10⁵ cfu/g of soil microbial population, respectively. The S. rolfsii was isolated from Shiware, Wadkudi and Bumne locations with 1 x 10⁵, 2 x 10⁵ and 4 x 10⁵ cfu/g of soil microbial population, respectively. Fusarium sp. was obtained from Kondvan and Shiware with the microbial population of 2 x 10⁵ eachand from Golevane location its population was 1 x 10⁵ cfu/g of soil. Among the antagonists Pseudomonas sp. was obtained from two locations in the range of 18–23 x 10⁸ cfu/g of soil while Trichoderma sp. and Streptomyces sp. were obtained from one location with 5 x 10⁵ and 5 x 10⁴ cfu/g of soil, respectively. In the correlation study, the higher levels of manganese, iron and copper micronutrients significantly favoured the microbial population of the Pseudomonas sp. as compared to other microorganisms. The bioagent Trichoderma sp. had positive correlation with higher levels of zinc and iron. The pathogen M. phaseolina showed positive correlation with increased levels of all the four micronutrients. The zinc, iron and copper elements positively favoured the populations of A. flavus and S. rolfsii while Fusarium sp. had positive correlation with manganese, iron and copper.