In vitro efficacy of different biological agents against Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici causing wilt of tomato

Abstract

F. oxysporum is so widespread, it is a significant problem in many crops. It is economically damaging to the banana industry, and the threat of more virulent strains or mutations to damage previously resistant crops is of major concern. F. oxysporum also causes damage to many crops from the family Solanaceae, including potato, tomato, and pepper. Yield losses of effected crops can be high, up to 45% yield loss of tomato crop has been reported in India. Other commercially important plants affected include basil, beans, carnation, chrysanthemum, peas, and watermelon. Woody ornamentals are infected, but are usually not killed by Fusarium wilt alone. Palms, however, are the exception, and there are many species that can die from F. oxysporum infection. In vitro evaluation of the biological agents revealed thatamong the fungal bioagents Trichoderma viride was found to be superior as compared to remaining three species which found to inhibit 84.84 per cent growth of the pathogen followed by T. harzianum (72.54%), T. hamatum (69.93%), T. koningii (61.49%) inhibited growth of pathogen and among two bacterial species B. subtilis were found to be effective in inhibiting the growth of pathogen i.e. (79.25%) as compared to P. fluorescens which was found to inhibit (62.36%) growth of pathogen.