BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF ROOT-KNOT (Meloidogyne javanica) OF TOMATO

Abstract

Of two sets of pot experiment, first one was conducted with standard leaf extract of Bashak (Adhatoda vasica), Satodrone (Leucas aspera), Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon) and Mustard (Brassica napus) oil-cake extract to evaluate their efficacy against root-knot (Meloidogyne javanica) disease of tomato after 7 days of transplantation. Standard extract of Bashak showed the best performance followed by Mustard oil-cake, Satodrone and Bermuda grass as evident with better plant growth characters like length of shoot and root, fresh weight of shoot and root with higher yield and reduction of galls compared to the control treatment. In the second experiment, Soil drenching as an application method of BAU-Biofungicide, gave superior response followed by the other application methods of BAU-Biofungicide like Seed treatment, Root dipping and Foliar spray on plant growth parameters and yield with reduced galling than control treatment. Negative correlations between galling incidence and shoot and root length as well as with yield indicated the strong positive effect of the treatments as envisaged with the suppression of the nematode activity enhancing growth and yield of tomato.