Growth promotion of chickpea plant on treatment with native isolates of Trichoderma spp.

Abstract

Trichoderma spp. (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) are free-living soil fungi that are commonly found root ecosystems. It is well reported as an efficient bio control agents against many soil borne pathogen of many crops. It is most popularly used as bio control agents due to its wide mechanism of parasitism i.e., Mycoparasitism and hyphal lysis, antibiosis, competition for nutrients and space. Apart from this, Trichoderma spp. are also well reported as a root colonizer which promote growth of plants significantly as compared to untreated plant. It can be applied as seed treatment and soil inoculation, which not only increase the germination percentage but also improves the root length, shoot length, dry weight, fresh weight, vigour index and vigour mass index. In chickpea cvs JG-14 and JG-24, maximum growth promotion observed with inoculation of Trichoderma isolate Tr- 7 followed by Tr- 6, Tr- 2 and Tr-1.