Toxicity of different fungicides on growth and sporulation of Trichoderma viride

Hukma Ram and R.N. Pandey

Department of Plant Pathology, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University,
Anand 388 110, Gujarat, India; E-mail: pande_rn@yahoo.co.in

An experiment was conducted under in vitro condition with seven different fungicides viz.,

carbendazim, thiram, metiram, difenconazole, hexaconazole, combi product of captan +

hexaconazole (Taqat 75% WP) and carbendazim + mancozeb (Sixer 75% WP) in order to

assess their toxicity against bicontrol agent Trichoderma viride. All the fungicides were

screened at four different concentrations by employing poisoned food technique and

sporulation was counted using haemocytometer. Results revealed that carbendazim,

difenconazole and hexaconazole were extremely toxic to T. viride even at low concentration

of 10 μg ml-1 and completely inhibited the growth and sporulation. Same trend was observed

in carbendazim + mancozeb at 20 to 100 μg ml-1. Therefore, integration of T. viride with

these fungicides may not be beneficial. T. viride showed tolerance to captan + hexaconazole

up to 50 μg ml-1 as only 49.44 % growth inhibition and sporulation of 2.54×10 6 spores ml-1

was observed. Thiram at 200 μg ml -1 and metiram at 500 μg ml-1 concentrations were found

to be safe and compatible with T. viride as they allowed full growth (90 mm) with 4.09×106

and 1.80×106 spores ml-1 sporulation, respectively as compared to 5.97×106 ml-1 sporulation

in control plates at 5 days of incubation. However, in control plates full growth of 90 mm was

observed at 3 days of incubation. Moreover, T. viride was tolerant to thiram up to 500 μg ml-1

as only 39.07 % growth inhibition and profuse sporulation was observed. The results of

present study concluded that thiram and metiram upto 500 μg ml-1 concentration were not

inhibitory to the growth and sporulation of bioagent and was found to be compatible for

integration with T. viride for seed treatment.