EVALUATION OF TRICHODERMA HARZIANUM STRAINS TO CONTROL CROWN AND ROOT ROT OF GREENHOUSE FRESH MARKET TOMATOES

Greenhouse tomato growers in the United States have few products available for chemical control of plant pathogens.
Biological control of soilborne plant pathogens by antagonistic microorganisms is a potential alternative to the use of chemical pesticides during greenhouse production.
Biological control experiments were conducted to test the effects of commercial and noncommercial strains of Trichoderma harzianum against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici on tomato plants grown in two different hydroponic media, coir and rockwool. Trichoderma harzianum is a fungus that attacks a range of economically important phytopathogenic fungi.
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., cultivar ‘Caruso’) plants were inoculated with T. harzianum strains (PlantShield^TM, T22 and T95) prior to challenge with the pathogen.
They were applied into growing media prior to sowing and to roots at transplanting at two inocula densities, 10⁶ or 10⁷ conidia/ml.
The results of this study demonstrated that T. harzianum strains, especially applied at transplanting, decreased disease incidence 79% for coir and 73% for rockwool, decreased disease severity 45% for coir and 48% for rockwool, and increased fruit yield 37% for coir and 25% for rockwool on tomato for Fusarium control.

XXVI International Horticultural Congress: Managing Soil-Borne Pathogens: A Sound Rhizosphere to Improve Productivity in Intensive Horticultural Systems

N. Ozbay, S.E. Newman, W.M. Brown

Lycopersicon esculentum, disease incidence, disease severity, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici, rockwool, coir

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.635.10