Evaluation of seed-borne fungi associated with tomato and their control measures

Raihan I Raju

doi:10.3329/jujbs.v6i2.36591

Abstract

A number of seed borne fungi such as- Fusarium moniliforme, Curvularia lunata, Alternaria solani, Helminthosporium solani, Aspergillus flavus, A. niger and Penicillium spp. were identified from the selected BARI-8, Nilima, Patharkuchi, Roma and Ratan varieties of tomato seeds. The highest (2.53%) mean incidence of the fungi F. moniliforme were recorded in tomato variety Roma, BARI-8, Nilima and Ratan while the lowest (0.13%) mean incidence of the fungi Penicillium was found in Ratan. The maximum percent of germination (64%) was recorded in both BARI-8 and Patharkuchi varieties, while the minimum (7%) germination in Nilima. The highest seedling vigor index (632.96) was encountered in BARI-8 and the lowest in Nilima. Trichoderma viride, T. harzianum and T. koningii were used as bio-control agents against major seed borne fungi. T. viride showed the significantly effective mycelial growth inhibition against F. moniliforme and C. lunata, while T. harzianum and T. koningii showed poor performance against both tested fungi. In case of botanical extracts, Lawsonia inermis exhibited the maximum (82.15% and 86.24%) inhibition of mycelium growth of F. moniliforme and C. lunata, respectively. Chemical fungicides, Bavistin (0.5 gm/l) inhibited 65% mycelial growth against F. moniliforme, while higher concentration of chemical fungicide gave 81% inhibition of C. lunata. The results suggested that, L. inermis phytoextract can possibly be exploited for the management of seed-borne pathogenic fungi of tomato in an environmental friendly way.Jahangirnagar University J. Biol. Sci. 6(2): 59-66, 2017 (December)

Highlights

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is one of the most important and popular vegetable in the world under the family Solanaceae, due to its taste, high nutritive value and diversified use (Alam et al, 1996)
Seed health test: Maximum fungal infected seeds were recorded in BARI-8 (20%) which was followed by Roma (11.33%), Nilima (3.33%), Patharkuchi (2%) and Ratan (1.33%), respectively (Fig. 1)
The maximum mean percent incidence of seed borne fungi were recorded as 2.53% for F. moniliforme, followed by A. flavus (1.73%), C. lunata (0.79%), A. solani and A. niger (0.66%), H. solani (0.4%) and Penicillium spp. (0.13%) (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) is one of the most important and popular vegetable in the world under the family Solanaceae, due to its taste, high nutritive value and diversified use (Alam et al, 1996). Seeds of five different tomato varieties such as BARI-8, Nilima, Patharkuchi, Roma and Ratan were collected from local market of Savar and Laboratory of Plant Breeding and Crop Improvement, Department of Botany, Jahangirnagar University and used as materials in this investigation. Seed-borne fungi, i.e., Fusarium moniliforme, Curvularia lunata, Alternaria solani, Helminthosporium solani, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Penicillium spp. were isolated from the selected varieties of tomato seeds.

Results

Conclusion