Abstract:
Eight native
Pseudomonas species (I
1 to I
8) and one introduced
P. fluorescens (I
9)
were evaluated to test the antagonism against
Sclerotium rolfsii unde
r in vitro conditions. Of the eight antagonists tested, isolate-I
7 (PFP) recorded the maximum inhibition zone of 13.33 mm and a minimum of 23.00 mm mycelial growth of
S. rolfsii accounting for 74.25 per cent reduction in the mycelial growth over control (89.33 mm) and it was on par with I
9 (PFC). This was followed by isolate-I
4 (PFK). The least mycelial growth inhibition was observed with the isolate-I
3 (BSE). Biochemical tests were conducted for all the isolates. All the isolates produced similar result with regard to gram staining and KOH test (I
1, I
4, I
6, I
7, and I
8) showed negative, whereas fluorescent pigment test showed positive results. The
isolates-I
2, I
3, I
5, showed positive in gram staining and KOH test, whereas fluorescent pigment showed negative results. Generally all the isolates showed positive results in motility test. The eight bacterial isolates tested in this experiment showed variation with colony type, colour, growth type and reaction to UV light. The effect of different concentration of culture filtrate of bacterial isolates on the mycelial growth of
S. rolfsii under
in vitro conditions revealed that the culture filtrate of the isolate-I
7 totally inhibited the mycelial growth of
S. rolfsii at 15% concentration under
in vitro conditions followed by the isolate-I
4.. Studies on the effect of antagonist under pot culture condition revealed that the combined application of
P. fluorescens (PFP) through seedling dip (SD) and soil application (SA)
recorded the minimum incidence of collar rot (13.66 per cent). The maximum disease incidence was recorded in inoculated control treatment (93.33 per cent).