ACTIVITY OF EFFECTIVE MICROORGANISMS AND FERMENTED PLANT EXTRACT AGAINST CAUSATIVE AGENTS OF CUCUMBER SEEDLING DAMPING OFF

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the activity of effective non- pathogenic microorganisms (EM1) and fermented plant extract by these microorganisms (FPE), against Pythium aphanidermatum and Rhizoctonia solani of cucumber seedling damping off on culture media and in pots. The results showed that growth of P.aphanidermatum was totally inhibited on PDA medium amended with 3% of EM1 and FPE separately. EM1 was more effective than FPE against R.solani with an inhibition of 59.23% compared with 33.0% in presence of FPE on PDA medium. FPE showed high efficiency in reducing infection percentages by these two fungi in pots. The percentages of healthy plants in FPE treatment and contaminated with P. aphanidermatum were found 85.7% and 83.3% , compared with 81.0% and 75.0% in the soil contaminated with R.solani after 7 and 30 days respectively. The addition of 8 % bokashi to pots soil contaminated by R.solani has increased the percentage of healthy plants compared to the contaminated soil with fungus to only 76.2% and 56.7% respectively after 7 days, while it was statistically significant against the fungus P. aphanidermatum after 30 days of treatment, the percentage of healthy plants were found 75% compared to only 50% in contaminated soil with fungus. Results of this study indicated the possibility of using fermented organic matter as an alternative to chemical fertilizers and as a biocontrol agent alternative to chemical control in cucumber damping off management.