Management of Fusarium wilt of tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum f sp. lycopersici

Abstract

Fusarium wilt of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Miller) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f sp. lycopersici is one of the most destructive diseases in tomato throughout the world. Effective and efficient management of the crop disease is generally achieved by the use of synthetic pesticides. These pesticides cause deleterious effects on human health and biosphere. Amendments (Neem cake, oil cake, cow dung, rabbit manure and chicken manure) were used in tomato seedlings to observe growth promotion increase in healthy and treated tomato seedlings of two varieties, Shrijana and Patam. Results revealed that growth of the tomato seedlings was significantly increased following amendment with neem cake and oil cake in the treated Fusarium oxysporum f sp. lycopersici inoculated plants than in untreated uninoculated plants as recorded. Oil cake had better effect than neem cake manure. It has been observed that the growth of tomato seedlings increased in untreated inoculated than treated inoculated tomato seedlings. Among cow dung, rabbit manure and chicken manure, chicken manure gave better growth of tomato seedlings than that of rabbit manure and cow dung. Similarly effective integrated management practices against Fusarium oxysporum f sp. lycopersici were also developed using neem cake, oil cake, aqueous bulb extract of Allium sativum, bio-control agent like Trichoderma harzianum and calixin (0.0125%) in vivo. Combination with cow dung, neem cake, oil cake, chicken manure and rabbit manure, disease reduction were insignificant. However, combination with neem cake and oil cake showed 64.4% disease incidence, whereas in oil cake, neem cake and Allium sativum in combination disease incidence were recorded 10.1%. Under pot culture conditions T. harzianum alone and in combination with neem cake, oil cake and Allium sativum provided best effective management practices of Fusarium wilt in all the three modes of application viz., simultaneous, repeated and post infection.