Enhancement of seedling vigor of selected solanaceae and brassica seedlings using Trichoderma harzianum

Abstract

An experiment was performed with commercial Trichoderma harzianum strains and sown in different growing media of peatmoss(PM), peatmoss with charcoal(PM+CD) dust, sterilized soil(SS) and unsterilized soil(USS) to test whether they have any effect on the growth of tomato seedlings, TPS (cultivar – Oliver F1) seedlings and cabbage seedlings. Trichoderma spp. are beneficial fungi that colonize the root epidermis and the outer cortical layers (Harman 2006). Seedling vigor can be enhanced through innoculation with Trichoderma Harzianum and Imparted seedling vigor is dependent on the growing media was hypothesized .The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), TPS (Solonum tuberosam cultivar – Oliver F1) and cabbage (brassica) seedlings were grown in a greenhouse in different growing media mentioned above and inoculated twice with Trichoderma Harzianum twice in a week daily by hand just after sowing and after 10days. Randomized complete block design was used and treatments were replicated three times. At 28 days after sowing, the seedlings were sampled for growth comparisons on leaf width, number of true leaves, root , stem and leaf fresh weights, stem length, leaf Length and internode number The data were subjected to ANOVA and the means tested by LSD analyzed by R- Studio. The results demonstrated that Trichoderma harzianum improved TPS, cabbage and tomato seedling growth. There were differences between the untreated control and the treatments for some of the growth parameters at28 days after sowing and inoculations and the differences were dependent on both media and Trichoderma inoculation except for stem fresh weight and leaf fresh weight in cabbage seedlings. Growth parameters in tomato alone were dependent on both Trichoderma inoculation and growing media with all parameters higher in peatmoss with charcoal dust except root fresh weight which higher in peatmoss. TPS seedlings growth leaf width and internode growth was dependent on the interaction of media in this case peatmoss and Trichoderma harzianum and 0the parameters like leaf length, leaf number stem length, root fresh weight, stem fresh weight and leaf fresh weight were not different with the interaction of Trichoderma harzianum and media however there growth was highly imparted by main effect of media where they performed better in peatmoss and there were also positive differences in the seedlings inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum. Cabbage seedling vigor was imparted by media where its growth was higher in peatmoss and it was also greatly affected by Trichoderma harzianum treatments. The results demonstrated that Trichoderma harzianum improved growth of tomato, TPS and cabbage seedlings. Unsterilized soil is not good for Trichoderma harzianum inoculation and seedling growth whereas peatmoss and peatmoss with charcoal dust are the best for Trichoderma harzianum inoculation