Biological Control of Damping-Off Disease of Tomato Caused by Pythium indicum Balakrishnan

A pot culture experiment was conducted to find out the efficacy of antagonists in the control of damping-off disease of tomato caused by Pythium indicum Balakrishnan. Soil inoculation with Trichoderma viride Pers., T. harzianum Rifai, and Laetisaria arvalis Burdsall, gave good control of the pathogen and the treated pots recorded 78.2, 70.9 and 72.2 per cent seed germination respectively as against 19.3 per cent in the control. Seed treatment with T. viride, T. harzian um and L. arvails was also found to be equally good. The results obtained were comparable to soil drenching with fungicides like fenaminosu1f, copper oxychloride and seed treatment with captan or thiram. However, improved seedling vigour was noticed in the treatments with antagonists than with fungicides.