Performance of Soil Type, Cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis and Biofertilizers on Controlling Damping-off, Root Rot and Wilt Diseases of Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) in Egypt

Abstract

The present study was carried out under pot experiments during 2019 and 2020. Four fungi were isolated from naturally infected moringa roots. Sclerotium rolfsii was the most frequently isolated fungus, followed by Fusarium oxysporum, while Fusarium solani and Rhizoctonia solani were the least frequent ones. S. rolfsii followed by F. oxysporum were the most virulent isolated fungi that caused the highest percentages of pre- and post-emergence damping-off, root rot and/or wilt. While, F. solani showed the lowest effect in this respect. Sandy soil followed by mixture of sandy + clay soil (2:1 w/w) were the best for decreasing pre- and post-emergence damping-off as well as root rot and/or wilt diseases and increasing percent of survived plants compared to clay soil.Cyanobacterium, Spirulina platensis and the mixture of biofertilizers, i.e., nitrobein, phosphorein and potasiomag, as well as Topsin-M fungicide were effective to control the tested pathogens. All the tested treatments were capable to cause significant reduction of damping-off, root rot and/or wilt diseases and increase the percent of survived plants when used as soil treatments. Also, they significantly increased herb fresh weight/plant (g) and fresh weight of tuber (g) as well as no. of new plants, herb fresh weight of new plant (g), fresh weight of new tuber (g) and nutrients content in moringa leaves compared with control treatment. The biofertilizers proved to be the most effective treatment in this regard.