&lt;i&gt;In vitro&lt;/i&gt; screening of selected herbicides on rhizosphere mycoflora from yellow pepper (&lt;i&gt;Capsicum annum&lt;/i&gt; L var. Nsukka yellow) seedlings in Nsukka, Enugu state, Nigeria

Chukwuma Simon Eze

doi:10.4314/gjpas.v21i2.3

Abstract

In vitro screening of five selected herbicides at different concentrations on rhizosphere mycoflora from yellow pepper ( capsicum annum L var. Nsukka yellow) seedlings at Nsukka were investigated. The herbicides employed for this study were Paraquat, Glyphosate, Primextra, Atrazine and Linuron. The isolated rhizosphere mycoflora organisms screened were Rhizopus stolonifer (Ehren ex. Fr) Lind, Trichoderma harmatum Bain aggr; Aspergillus niger Van Tiegh; Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc; Penicillium sp; Alternaria sp; Fusarium solani (Mart) Sacc and Rhizoctonia sp. The results showed that all the herbicides at different concentrations of 0.5 μg/ml a.i, 1.0 μg/ml a.i, 2.0 μg/ml a.i, 5.0 μg/ml a.i and 10.0 μg/ml a.i inhibited the mycelial growth of the isolated rhizosphere fungi. Growth inhibition of the rhizosphere fungi increased with increasing concentrations of each herbicide. Paraquat, Glyphosate and Atrazine showed higher inhibition potency on all the fungal mycelial growth than Primextra and Linuron. The significance of these results is discussed. KEYWORDS : In vitro screening, herbicides, Rhizosphere mycoflora, yellow pepper seedlings.

Highlights

Weeds constitute one of the biggest problems in agriculture that do they reduce the yield and quality of crops and utilize essential nutrients meant for the crop
The results show that the isolated rhizosphere fungi were Rhizopus stolonifer (Ehren ex Fr.) Lind, Trichoderma harmatum (Ben.) Bain aggr, Aspergillus niger VanTiegh, Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc; Penicillium sp
Growth inhibition became more severe with increasing concentration of the herbicides though the percentage inhibition varied from one fungus to another and from one herbicide to another

Summary

Introduction

Weeds constitute one of the biggest problems in agriculture that do they reduce the yield and quality of crops and utilize essential nutrients meant for the crop. Herbicides are one of the major groups of pesticides which include substances or cultured biological organisms used to kill or suppress the growth of weeds which are unwanted plants in order to minimize the cultivation costs as well as to sustain high yield (Cork and Krueger, 1992). They are the major group of pesticide which contribute to the increased and economically production of crop plants and minimize human toil in agricultural production (Subhani et al; 2000). Gupta et al; (2011) indicated that herbicides had significant deleterious effect on soil fungi, micorrhizal spore numbers and percentage root colonization and this have increased injuries to the beneficial soil microbial organisms

Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion