Integrated Control of Seed, Root Rot and Damping-off of Eggplant (Solanum melongena) Seedlings

Nofal Suleiman Al-Ameiri

Mutah  Lil-Buhuth wad-Dirasat. 25:1:9-26.

Integrated control of eggplant (Solanum melongena) seeds, root rot and damping-off caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn, Fusarium solani Mart and Pythium aphanidermatum Fitzp was conducted by using seed-pelleting technique, which was used for the first time in Jordan in the field of plant disease control. Chemical control (fungicides include Benlate, Ridomile MZ-72 and Captan) and biological control (Trichoderma harzianum) were used in seed-pelleting with or without triple fertilizer (NPK).

The study showed that the biocontrol agent, T. harzianum and pathogenic fungi were not affected in vitro by increasing the NPK fertilizer in growth media, except F. Solani at 200 and 300 mg/L was significantly increased compared with zero and 50 mg/L. The pot experiment showed that pelleting eggplant seeds with any of control elements whether single or mixed were effective in controlling seed, root rot and damping-off eggplant diseases than pelleting seeds without element control. Added NPK to soil pellet decreased disease incidence and severity but without significantly differences. Disease incidence and severity were more increased when soil was inoculated with mixed pathogenic fungi than when inoculated with one fungus alone. Among all treatments used, the best treatment for controlling this disease was the use of a mixture of these control agents, which reduced the incidence of the disease to 3.00 and 4.33 compared to 59.00 and 66.00 with or without fertilizer in the control respectively. While the disease severity was reduced to 0.035 and 0.036 compared to control treatment (0.40 and 0.44) with or without fertilizer, respectively.