Evaluation of Trichoderma Harzianum Biological Control Against Fusarium Oxysporum F. Sp. Melongenae

Abstract

The present study was conducted to biocontrol in vitro and in vivo of Fusarium oxysporum that cause Fusarium wilt diseases for eggplant plants by using biological control agent fungus Trichoderma harzianum. Fourteen isolates from F. oxysporum were isolated and identified from two fields in Iraq. Pathogenicity test indicated that all F. oxysporum isolates were pathogenic for eggplant but differed in its level of pathogenicity. Four of the fourteen isolates from F. oxysporum were selected depending on their highest pathogenicity for eggplant plants, F. oxysporum four isolates F5, F6, F13 and F14 achieved at pre emergence 83.3%, 83.3%, 86.7% and 83.3% and at post emergence 90.0%, 90.0%, 83.3% and 76.7% respectively. In vitro, the antagonistic activity evaluation of T. harzianum against F. oxysporum four isolates revealed that T. harzianum was highly significantly inhibited F. oxysporum four isolates growth (F5, F6, F13, F14) which recorded the inhibition percentage 87.00, 89.00, 89.00, and 96.33% respectively. Greenhouse (In vivo) results of the biocontrol efficiency of T. harzianum against F. oxysporum showed significant reduction in eggplant Fusarium wilt incidence compared with pathogens control treatments. The pathogen F. oxysporum treatments with T. harzianum (TF) showed that all the treatments (TF) achieved high germination rate for eggplant seeds compared with control treatment, while the treatment TF13 was significantly superior than all other treatments in number of leaflets, stem height, shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight, root fresh weight, root dry weight and root size which recorded 8.67, 19.00cm, 20.33gm, 4.73gm, 12.00gm, 1.53gm, 17.67cm³ respectively.