Management of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici and root-knot nematode disease complex in tomato by use of antagonistic fungi, plant resistance and neem

ABSTRACTSimultaneous infestation with root-knot nematodes (RKN) and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici (FOL) leads to formation of a disease complex that increases crop losses than effect of either RKN or FOL. In this study a management programme involving plant resistance, biological control agents, and neem was carried out to manage RKN and fusarium wilt disease complex. The biological control agents were Purpureocillium lilacinum (PL) and Trichoderma harzianum (TH) while the RKN was Meloidogyne javanica. In vitro dual culture plates were set up to test the interaction of biological control agents and FOL. Greenhouse experiments were conducted using two tomato cultivars Rambo F1 and Prostar F1. The treatments were; PL, TH, PL–TH, neem, PL neem, TH neem, and PL–TH neem. Each treatment was replicated four times and the treatments set up in a randomised complete block design in the greenhouse. Inhibition of FOL mycelial growth by TH and PL was 51.9%, and 44% respectively by the ninth day in vitro cultur...