Abstract
A study was done to find out the comparative effect of Cercospora piaropi Tharp and Myrothecium roridum Tode Fries formulated as corn oil emulsion on water hyacinth shoot growth and biomass under greenhouse conditions. The study site was located in Kibos at latitude 0037’S and longitude 37020’E with average temperature of 25 to 300C and 22 to 270C during the day and night respectively, and 60 to 69% relative humidity. Healthy water hyacinth plants were inoculated with the pathogens formulated in corn oil at 1x109, 1x108, 1x107, 1x106 and 1x105spores/ml. The control plants were not inoculated. The experiment was set up in completely randomized design (CRD) with each treatment replicated three times. At weeks 2, 4, and 6 after inoculation, the average shoot length and biomass for the treated basins were separately compared to the average shoot length and biomass of the control plants. Increase in spore density for both pathogens significantly increased relative shoot length and relative biomass. Relative shoot length was 55.07 and 51.93 for C. piaropi and M. roridum respectively at 1x109 spores/ml while relative biomass was 73.53 for C. piaropi and 37.60 at 1x109 spores/ml. Inoculation suppressed shoot elongation and biomass with 1x109 spores/ml being most effective. Cercospora piaropi formulated in corn oil lowered shoot length and biomass of water hyacinth more than M. roridum did.
Highlights
Water hyacinth invasion and its associated effects to riparian communities poses challenges to activities like fishing and farming along invaded water bodies
The highest relative shoot length for C. piaropi was 46.34 while for M. roridum was 41.80, both being recorded for 1x109 spores /ml
The increasing relative shoot length with increasing spore concentration for both pathogens suggested that the inoculated plants had suppressed shoot elongation as compared to the control plants
Summary
Water hyacinth invasion and its associated effects to riparian communities poses challenges to activities like fishing and farming along invaded water bodies. Chemical and biological control methods have been tried out, VonBlank et al (2018) has stated that reoccurrence of the weed relies on biomass reintroduction by humans. Much research on water hyacinth bio control has been devoted to the development of new mycoherbicide formulations using vegetable oil as the carrier material (Berestetskiy and Sokornova, 2018). These formulations have not been effective due to reasons related to rapid water hyacinth luxuriant growth
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