BIOLOGICAL TOMATO SEED TREATMENT AND APPLICATION OF SOME FERTILIZERS TO CONTROL FUSARIUM ROOT- ROT

El-Hamady, Mahmoud; Nour-Jehan, Eisa; El-Kolaly, Ghada Abd-El-Ghani

doi:10.21608/jpd.2010.42416

BIOLOGICAL TOMATO SEED TREATMENT AND APPLICATION OF SOME FERTILIZERS TO CONTROL FUSARIUM ROOT- ROT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Plant Production Department. Vegetables Branch, Efficient Productivity Institute, Zagazig University, Egypt.

² Plant Path. Research, Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/jpd.2010.42416

Abstract

Both Trichoderma viride and Bacillus subtilis inhibited the linear growth of Fusarium solani (Mart) Sny. And Hans, the causal agent of tomato root-rot disease. T. viride showed greater inhibitory effect compared with B. subtilis.
           Greenhouse and field experiments indicated that seed coating with either T. viride or B. subtilis were effective biocontrol treatments against Fusarium root-rot of tomato. On the other hand, these treatments were found to be responsible for the increasing both fresh and dry weights of tomato shoots and roots. Furthermore, the population density of the isolated bacteria, fungi and Fusarium spp., were lower in the plants developed from treated seeds.
          Different fertilizers, i.e. ammonium nitrate, calcium super phosphate, potassium sulphate and the combination among them in various rates in greenhouse experiments, significantly decreased the percentage of post-emergence damping-off caused by F. solani. However, the lowest percentages occurred in N₀ P₁ K_2, N₁P₁K₂and N₁P₂K₁treatments.
         On the other, most fertilizer treatments, significantly increased the number of healthy survival plants and tomato yield in the field. The highest percentages of healthy plants and yield were recorded with the application of N₂ P₂K₂ (100 Kg ammonium nitrate + 200 Kg calcium super phosphate + 100 Kg potassium sulphate ).

Keywords