Morphological Characterization and Evaluation of Biological Control Potential of Trichoderma Species Against Root-knot Nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) on Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

Abstract

This study was carried out to morphologically characterize and determine the biological control potential of Trichoderma species on root-knot nematodes attacking tomato plants. Laboratory and screen house experiments were conducted at CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Fumesua-Ghana. Ten soil samples at a depth of 20 cm were collected from vegetable farms in Western North, Bono and Ashanti regions of Ghana where tomato and other vegetables were grown for Trichoderma isolation while heavily galled-roots of lettuce crops were obtained from KNUST vegetable farms for extraction of root-knot nematodes. The tomato seeds were obtained from K. Badu Agrochemicals Limited and CSIR-Crops Research Institute. The Trichoderma and root-knot nematode juveniles’ isolation were set up in Completely Randomized Design with three replicates while the screen house experiment was carried out in Completely Randomized Design with three replicates and nine treatments. Nine Trichoderma isolates were retrieved from the ten soil samples and morphologically characterized into four as Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma virens, Trichoderma viride and Trichoderma asperellum. Fresh root weight, fresh shoot weight, root galls, egg masses, final nematode population, plant height, stem girth and number of leaves of tomato plants differed significantly (P ˂ 0.05) between Trichoderma treated and the control plants. It was concluded that Trichoderma viride (P34-5), Trichoderma virens (OKK3) and Trichoderma harzianum (TECH10) were the most promising species with biological control potential against root-knot nematodes on tomato plant.