The Use of Micro-Biological Agents at Different Pairing Times in the Control of <i>Fusarium verticillioides</i> Pathogen of Maize (<i>Zea mays</i>)

Abstract

Fusarium verticillioides is a widely distributed mitosporic pathogen of maize, able to cause corn seedling blight, root rot, stalk rot and kernel or ear rot. Synthetic fungicides and some crop management practices are also not advisable in the control of this pathogen because chemical fungicide result in environmental pollution or hazards. Antagonistic micro-biological agents (bioagents) can be recommended to farmers because it is cheaper and environmental friendly. This aim of this study was to assess the efficiency of antagonistic micro organisms in the control of Fusarium verticillioides of maize. The efficacy of micro-biological agents: Trichoderma viride, T. pseudokoningii, T. harzianum and Bacillus subtilis were assessed in vitro. Laid in the laboratory in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and subjected to analysis of variance using SAS, 2001. The four antagonistic bioagents showed different inhibitory effect in the control of F.verticillioides. T. viride and T. pseudokoningii were the most effective antagonists; they caused significant inhibitory effect on the growth of F.verticillioides by 0.75cm and 0. 72cm compared to the control which was 2.57cm respectively at 120 hours of incubation. T. harzianum and B. subtilis had the least inhibitory effect against the pathogen. There was a significant inhibition in the growth of F. verticillioides at < 0.05 when paired with all the micro-biological agents used. The introduction of the antagonist before the pathogen in vitro was observed to be the best followed by the simultaneous pairing, and the least inhibition was when the introduction of the antagonist 24 hours after the pathogen. It was observed that all the antagonists tested had good inhibitory potentials on the pathogen, F. verticillioides.