Disease management is often complicated by the presence of multiple types of pathogens; in an organic system, it is appropriate to develop disease control strategies. The available literature so far reflects that the management of important disease of tomato is through the integrated approaches and very few organic approaches have been tried with various degree of success. Boiopriming of seeds with biocontrol agents ( Trichoderma viridae, Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescens) in combination with different biofertilizers ( Azotobacter, Azospirillum and PSB) and organic manures (FYM and vermi-compost) were tested against disease incidence and health management of tomato seedling under nursery as well as field conditions. The studies were conducted during two successive years (2012-2013) at farmer’s field with the objective to combat with the increasing disease incidence of three major disease damping-off, fusarium wilt and buckeye rot from nursery stage to the final harvesting. The study focused on the use of biocontrol agents as the suitable alternative to chemical pesticides with sustainable disease management without pesticide residues in foodstuff. The bio priming of seeds with fungal antagonist Trichoderma viridae and harzianum and bacterial antagonist Pseudomonas fluorescens significantly improved the germination behavior of tomato seeds as compared to untreated control. Highest mean germination (93.1%) and seedling vigour (953.33) was recorded in Treatment 3 (FYM @ 200 q/ ha + Azospirillum + PSB + Trichoderma herzianum (4 kg/ha each) and lowest in control (60.3%) and (304.83), thus indicating a significant per cent increase in seedling emergence (54.4%) and seedling vigour (95.23%). A considerable reduction in disease incidence (pre and post) of damping off was observed in treatment T? and T? (VC @ 50 q/ha + Azospirillum + PSB + Trichoderma herzianum @ (4 kg/ha) with 45.6% and 35.4% respectively). Treatment T? proved highest in terms of yield (665 Kg/Ha), Hence these diseases can be managed by successful application of Biocontrol agents.
Solan lalima is an open pollinated and indeterminate variety of tomato having superiority over the present tomato hybrids available in the markets in terms of fruit quality and productivity. Being open pollinated variety, it’s a suitable option for organic cultivation. The farmer can produce its seeds at their own farm. The importance of healthy seed selection and disease free nursery raising is the most important requirement to have the desired crop performance, lower the abiotic and biotic yield limiting constrains, reduce the incidence of insect-pest- disease (IPD) and to fetch remunerative economic return to the farmers. The reduction in potential yield in hills by the farmer is due to the increasing susceptibility of pre and post emergence of insect-pest and diseases at regular intervals, right from the nursery raising to the final harvesting period, where the incidence of most pathogenic diseases like Damping off (Pythium aphanidermatum), bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solani) and fusarial wilt (Fusarium oxysporum) etc. can be witnessed which ruin the crop diversity and quality to the most worst level. The problem becomes more severe when the crop is attacked by the cascade of diseases one after the other. The use of conventional chemical pesticides is considered most preferred practices to manage the outbreaks of these diseases, but the indiscriminate chemical approach to deal with these hazards has contributed to adverse effects like soil acidity, impairing soil physical conditions, reducing beneficial microbial population and continuously degrading organic matter, increasing plant susceptibility to insect-pest-diseases and decreasing soil lives.
The use of biocontrol agents (BCA’s) in combination with organic manures and biofertilizers is the suitable alternative to chemical applications with sustainable disease management without pesticides residues in food stuffs, development of resistance in plant pathogens and appearance of new strains of these pathogens. The biocontrol agents are highly effective, inexpensive with excellent shelf life and suitable method of delivery [
Determining the burning criteria of food quality and safety concerning each individual, an organic strategy can prove a miracle in increasing crop productivity, managing insect-pest and diseases, lowering pesticide residues an ultimately boosting up the best economic returns to the farmers.
Keeping in view the above raised priorities, the present studies were undertaken to test:
1) The efficacy of different combinations of organic manures, biofertilizers and BCA’s for the management of various diseases, so as to integrate it in disease management schedule at farmer’s field.
2) To access the effect of the organic treatments on the productivity and incidence of important diseases.
S.NO. | Production (MT) and area (Ha) | ||
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Country/state/district | Area (Ha) | Production (MT) | |
1 | India | 479,200 | 8,585,800 |
2 | Himachal Pradesh | 9555 | 3.4 |
3 | Solan | 4298 | 195,900 |
FYM (Farm yard manure), VC (Vermicompost), AZO (Azotobacter), PSB (phosphate solubilizing bacteria), Neem cakes, AZS (Azospirillum), Trichoderma viridae, Trichoderma harzianum, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Asafetida were procured from Poabs Green Biotech Pvt Ltd Palghat (Kerala).
A field experiment was conducted at farmer’s field in basal village of Solan block of HP, during the year 2012-2013. For the studies commercially grown vegetable tomato (solan lalima, organically certified) was selected. The trial was laid using a RBD (Randomized Block design) with three replications. A whole of 7 treatments and 3 replications were worked out. Under organic treatments, no chemical fertilizers and pesticides were used, rather than a combinatorial approach combining the use of organic manures, biofertilizers with addition of biocontrol agents were used. The treatments ranged from T1 to T7. The detailed descriptions of these treatments are given in
All the treatments were comparatively analyzed with respect to production and profitability in terms of technology used for seed treatment, nursery raising, manurial and fertilizers schedule, sowing times and spacing etc.
The treatments comprised of seed treatment which included treating seeds with fungal strain Trichoderma viride (Poabs Biotech Pvt. Limited) @ 4 g/kg of seeds. The bed size for raising nursery was 1/3 mtx 15 cm flourished with well rotten FYM and VC @ 20 - 25 kg with combination of Pseudomonas fluroscens and Trichoderma herzianum @ 1.0% as biocontrol agent and PSB as biofertilizers @ 1.5 kg, during the first week of March during both the years.
Soil treatment was done by applying a combination of Trichoderma viride with panchagavya/jeeva amrit @ 4 g/L.
The 15 - 20 days old seedling was treated with 7 g/L neem soap spray.
Nursery drenching was done with Pseudomonas fluroscens (10 g/L).
Lastly before transplanting seedlings to the main field they were dipped in suspension solution of asfoetida @ 100 g/5 L of water for 15 - 20 minutes. The protocol (ICCOA standard protocol) followed in field after trans-
Treatments | Treatments designed with detailed description |
---|---|
Detailed description | |
T1 | FYM @ 200 q/ha + Trichoderma viride@ 4 kg/ha |
T2 | VC @ 50 q/ha + Trichoderma viride@ 4 kg/ha |
T3 | FYM @ 200 q/ha + Azospirillum + PSB + Trichoderma herzianum (4 kg/ha each) |
T4 | VC @ 50 q/ha + Azospirillum + PSB + Trichoderma herzianum@ (4 kg/ha) |
T5 | FYM @ 200 q/ha + Azotobacter + PSB (4 kg/ha) |
T6 | VC @ 50 q/ha + Azotobacter + PSB (4 kg/ha) |
T7 (control) | FYM @ 250 q/ha + chemical fertilizers (CAN @ 650 kg/ha, urea@) 650 kg/ha + pesticides (40 - 50 no. of sprays) |
planting seedlings to main field is described in
Observation were recorded on seedling emergence, vigour, incidence of disease (pre and post emergence), yield (Kg/ha) in comparison to an untreated control with reference to following under given parameters [
・ Seedling emergence (%) = No. of seedlings emerging out of total germinated.
・ Seedling vigour = (germination % x seedling length (cm) and % increase in vigour.
・ Incidence of pre emergence rot (%) was calculated by;
Total number of seeds sown-germinated seeds
・ Post emergence rot (%) was calculated by;
% of toppled plant out of germinated ones
・ Incidence of diseases and reduction in disease: (%) (Damping off, buckeye rot and fusarial wilt).
Yield (Kg/ha) was recorded in comparison with the control.
The data pertaining to estimation of various parameters was analyzed by Significance tests reported by analysis of variance (ANOVA) at p = 0.05 significance level with SPSS STAT 20 Software for (RBD) Randomized Block Design.
Protocol followed during Cropping period | ||
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Activity | Technological Intervention | |
Plot size | 1100 sqm | |
Preparation of land | Four plouging followed by flanking and final lying out of experimental bed plots. | |
Variety selection | Solan lalima (Open pollinated) | |
Seed source | Procured from Department of Vegetable crops Dr. Y.S. Parmar-UHF Solan | |
Seed rate | 400 g/ha | |
Seed treatment | Trichoderma viridae @ 4 g/kg of seed | |
Seed spacing | 5 cm × 2 cm × 0.5 cm | |
Nursery raising | Beds of 1 m × 3 m × 20 cm to which FYM @ 20 - 25 Kg/or VC 5 - 6 Kg, Trichoderma harzianum @ 4 g/Kg and 1.2 Kg neem cakes were incorporated. | |
Seedling treatment | Neem soap spray (7 g/l) to 15 days old seedlings-Drenching of seedling with Pseudomonas fluorescens (10 g/L) before transplanting. Root Dipping of seedlings in solution of asafetida (100 g/5L water) for 25 - 30 minutes before transplanting to the experimental plots. | |
Soil fertility management | Application of organic manures and bio-fertilizers. Mixing of FYM @ 200 quintal/ha + VC @ 50 quintal/ha + neem cake @ 250 kg/ha at the time of forming ridges. | |
Irrigation requirements | Two watering, morning and evening for one week. One time watering for second week. Alternate day watering during third week of transplanting and 5 - 7 days interval irrigation during the cropping period depending upon the weather. | |
Weed management | Hand weeding was used. During the entire cropping period three hand weeding was done. | |
Staking | Bamboo poles having 8 feet height supported by CGI wires and plastic ropes were used as support system. | |
Crop protection | Insect pest and disease management was undertaken by using all the organic approaches that is installation of yellow sticky traps, spray of biopesticides NPV (Nuclear Polyhedrosis virus), placement of trio card, use of neem cake/neem extract, vermin wash, use of barrier crops and other bio control agents(Trichoderma herzianum-10 g/l of water), Pseudomonas flourescens (10 g/l of water). |
The results obtained are presented and discussed under the following headings:
The nursery stage was set up with six designed organic treatments against an untreated control (farmers practice T7) (
Biopriming of tomato seeds with Trichoderma isolates (T. viridae and T. herzianum) and bacterial antagonist (P. fluorescens) in combination with devised organic treatments improved the seed germination % and seedling vigour index to a significant level (p = 0.05). Highest mean germination (93.1%) was recorded in treatment T3 (
All the bioformulations proved significantly effective in reducing the pre and post-emergence damping-off disease in tomato nursery compared to an untreated check. Maximum mean reduction (45.6%) in pre emergence rots while 58% reduction in post emergence rots with treatment T3 was recorded. T4 and T2 were at par with 35.4% reduction in pre emergence disease incidence and 59% and 39.3% post emergence disease reduction as compared to untreated control. From the data presented in
Treatments | (Mea ± SD) Data indicating the seedling germination (%) and vigor (%) (2012-2013) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
*Seedling germination (%) | *Seedling vigor (%) | Increase in seedling germination and vigor over control (%) | ||
T1 | 72.36 ± 2.8 | 532.0 ± 16.9 | 19.9 | 74.7 |
T2 | 89.49 ± 0.3 | 767.7 ±16.3 | 48.3 | 76.6 |
T3 | 93.15 ± 0.3 | 953.3 ± 19.0 | 54.4 | 95.2 |
T4 | 85.40 ± 1.8 | 813.6 ± 9.8 | 41.6 | 81.2 |
T5 | 86.30 ± 0.7 | 716.12 ± 18.2 | 43.1 | 71.5 |
T6 | 76.11 ± 0.0 | 615.58 ± 12.8 | 26.2 | 61.4 |
T7 (Control) | 60.33 ± 1.6 | 304.8 ± 17.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
α = 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 | ||
Sig. | HS*** | HS*** |
Treatments | Pre and post-damping off disease at nursery stage | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Pre damping-off RDI (%) | Post-damping off | RDI (%) | ||
T1 | 40.9 ± 1.2 | 29.6 | 24.0 ± 1.7 | 46 |
T2 | 37.5 ± 0.7 | 35.4 | 27.3 ± 3.6 | 39.3 |
T3 | 31.6 ± 1.3 | 45.6 | 18.7 ± 3.0 | 58 |
T4 | 42.9 ± 3.2 | 35.4 | 18.2 ± 4.0 | 59 |
T5 | 44. 1 ± 5.6 | 31.7 | 28.8 ± 3.4 | 36 |
T6 | 40.8 ± 8.2 | 29.7 | 29.7 ± 9.5 | 34 |
T7 (Control) | 58.1 ± 2.6 | 0.0 | 45.0 ± 2.3 | 0.0 |
α = 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 | ||
Sig. | HS*** | HS*** |
SD: standard deviation; Level of significance (at α = 0.05 by Fisher (F) test; Sig.-significance: HS*** = highly significant, best treatments bold and highlighted and control values highlighted but not bold, *data pooled for two consective years (2012-2013). RDI-reduction in disease incidence.
The healthy nursery when transferred to field (
The inferences drawn from
However, the mean reduction in fusarial wilt and buckeye rot was found to be 47.4% and 38% under treatment T3, indicating a considerable significant (p = 0.01) reduction in fusarial wilt and buckeye rot. The mean highest yield (
All botanicals were found significantly effective in increasing the seedling emergence and vigour index of tomato seeds under both nursery and field conditions. Similar findings on testing biocontrol agent’s effectiveness against disease control, improvement in seedling vigour, seedling emergence were worked out in cauliflower [
Treatments | Field trial results: pooled (Mean ± SD) data of two years (2012-2013) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Germination% | Fusarial wilt% | RDI% | Buckeye rot % | RDI % | |
T1 | 74.35 ± 2.2 | 40.3 ± 3.4 | 43.2 | 54.3 ± 1.2 | 19.6 |
T2 | 6.96 ± 5.0 | 41.9 ± 2.6 | 40.9 | 51.9 ± 0.3 | 23.2 |
T3 | 81.0 ± 2.1 | 37.3 ± 1.3 | 47.4 | 41.9 ± 3.2 | 38.0 |
T4 | 71.1 ± 3.1 | 46.2 ± 1.4 | 34.9 | 46.1 ± 1.5 | 31.8 |
T5 | 73.1 ± 2.0 | 41.8 ± 6.5 | 41.1 | 52.3 ± 0.8 | 22.6 |
T6 | 69.8 ± 2.25 | 43.2 ± 2.8 | 39.1 | 50.8 ± 0.6 | 24.8 |
T7 (control) | 59.5 ± 2.8 | 71.0 ± 2.3 | 0.0 | 67.6 ± 3.2 | 0.0 |
α = 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 | ||
Sig. | HS*** | HS*** | HS*** |
SD: standard deviation; Level of significance (at α = 0.05 by Fisher (F) test; Sig.-significance: HS*** = highly significant, best treatments bold and highlighted and control values highlighted but not bold, *data pooled for two consective years (2012-2013). RDI: reduction in disease incidence.
Treatments | Yield (Kg/ha)―2012-2013 | ||
---|---|---|---|
Yield (Kg/ha) | |||
1st Year | 2nd year | Mean ± SD | |
T1 | 591.3 ± 1.1 | 608.0 ± 10.5 | 599.6 ± 5.8 |
T2 | 589.0 ± 1.0 | 620.0 ± 0.0 | 604.5 ± 1.0 |
T3 | 621.0 ± 1.0 | 643.3 ± 2.8 | 632.1 ± 1.9 |
T4 | 614.6 ± 0.5 | 716.6 ± 28.8 | 665.0 ± 14.6 |
T5 | 610.6 ± 0.5 | 675.0 ± 0.0 | 642.8 ± 0.5 |
T6 | 611.6 ± 0.5 | 640.0 ± 0.0 | 635.8 ± 0.5 |
T7 (control) | 639.0 ± 1.0 | 660.0 ± 0.0 | 649.5 ± 1.0 |
α = 0.05 | 0.01 | 0.01 | |
Sig. | S** | HS*** |
SD: standard deviation; Level of significance (at α = 0.05 by Fisher (F) test; Sig.-significance: HS*** = highly significant, best treatments bold and highlighted and control values highlighted but not bold, *data pooled for two consective years (2012-2013).
Pseudomonas fluorescence [
In the present investigation the combinatorial approach of integrating biocontrol agents in organic treatments gave promising results for increasing the tomato germination (%) and seedling vigour under both nursery and field conditions, thus reducing the level of three major diseases-damping-off, fusarial wilt and buckeye rot and other harmful pathogens. The addition of microbial biocontrol agents during biopriming allows for colonization of the seed prior to planting and adds a new dimension to seed priming treatments, thus replacing the harmful synthetic fungicides which ruin the whole crop. The implication of the study is to control seed and soil borne pathogens with an application of biocontrol agents coupled with organic manures and biofertilizers right at prime nursery stage so that the incidence of diseases is reduced to a significant level so that it greatly lowers when the tomato seedlings are transplanted in main field, which in turn will help in maximum seedling survival and reduction in disease incidence.