Biological control of Panama wilt disease of banana

摘要

Banana wilt disease, popularly known as Panama wilt of banana is one of the catastrophic diseases of the world The causal fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense lives in soil and penetrates roots from where it spreads slowly to the corm. The occurrence of the disease has been reported in all banana growing areas (Sivamani and Gnanamanickam, 1988). All chemical and sanitary measures to curtail this disease have failed. In view of the possible development of resistance by the pathogen to chemicals and to reduce environmental pollution, two field trials were conducted to study the effect of formulations of two bio control agents viz., Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas fluorescens in the management of wilt diseases of banana in farmers holdings at Pullanveduthi and Karavial villages of Pudukottai District of Tamilnadu. The treatments are presented in Table 1. The biocontrol formulation of the respective organisms were obtained from the Department of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. P. fluorescens formulation (Pf 1) contained a population of 2.5 X 10~8 cfu/g and T. viride (Tv-6) had 280 X 10~6 cfu/g at the time of application. The treatment were replicated thrice and an area of one acre was selected for this trial with the susceptible variety, Rasthali.