Sustainable agriculture practice using Trichoderma and nonpathogenic Fusarium to control Vanilla Shoot Rot disease

Abstract

Vanilla shoots rot (VShR) disease in Indonesia is generally detrimental to the nursery, but due to the extreme climate change, the VShR disease attacks the vanilla plants grown in the field increases. This paper describes the development of research on the effectiveness of Trichoderma sp. and nonpathogenic Fusarium (FusNP) in controlling VShR, starting from isolation and identification of antagonistic fungi, in vitro testing to research results in the field, compared with the use of synthetic fungicides. The nonpathogenic fungi isolated from the rhizosphere soil of healthy vanilla plants were dominated by Trichoderma spp and nonpathogenic fusarium because they used selective media. The study showed that Trichoderma sp. and FusNP were quite effective in controlling the disease VShR in the field, similar to the effectiveness of synthetic fungicides, whereas the incidence of control was 32%. The use of synthetic fungicides intensively causes environmental pollution in the form of pesticide residues on leaves and fruit vanilla.