Disease complex of Rhizoctonia solani and Meloidogyne hapla Chitwood, 1949 (Nemata: Meloidogynidae) on tomato

Abstract

The root rot disease complex of Meloidogyne hapla Chitwood, 1949 (Nemata: Meloidogynidae) and Rhizoctonia solani Kühn was investigated in 2021 under controlled conditions with different applications on tomato. Three week-old seedlings (cv. Alberty F1) were inoculated with M. hapla and/or R. solani according to priority of the applications. After sixty days, the parameters of plant and root height, plant and root wet weight, numbers of gall and egg masses, disease severity, M. hapla second stage juvenile density and R. solani density in the soil were recorded. The plant growth parameters were more adversely affected in plants inoculated with R. solani 2 weeks after the M. hapla application, whereas the number of galls and egg masses in the roots were negatively affected in only M. hapla inoculation 2 weeks after the inoculation of R. solani application. The disease severity of R. solani inoculation 2 weeks after M. hapla application (44.7%) and simultaneous M. hapla and R. solani application (33.6%) were found to be higher than only R. solani application (21.6%) and M. hapla inoculation 2 weeks after R. solani application (22.9%). In this study, it was found that M. hapla infestation of tomato increased root rot disease caused by R. solani.