The Potential uses of underutilized plant species for the mass production of Trichoderma harzianum L.

Abstract

Several plant diseases can be controlled biologically using Trichoderma spp. However, the mass production and storage of Trichoderma spp. is highly expensive. Therefore, this research was carried out at Fruit Crop and Development Center, Horana, Sri Lanka to screen the effects of leaves of four different crops and another 13 underutilized wild plant species on their suitability in the mass production of Trichoderma harzianum L. Seventeen different media were prepared using green leaves (5g) of individual plant species comprised with glucose (5g/L) and distilled water (50ml). Treatments were arranged in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications. Spore counts of fungus were recorded using hemocytometer at 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th week after inoculation. Different treatments showed significant variations in spore counting of T. harzianum after 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th week of inoculation (p<0.05). Castor (9.8x10⁷ CFU/ml), gadapana (9.64x10⁷ CFU/ml) and erabadu (9.64x10⁷ CFU/ml) had significantly higher spore count at the 1^st week while kappettiya (25.31x10⁷ CFU/ml) and habarala (25.21x10⁷ CFU/ml) had the highest values at 2^nd week. Significantly increased spore count of 61.5x10⁷ CFU/ml and 61.2x10⁷ CFU/ml were resulted from castor and kappettiya during 3^rd week after inoculation. However, a sharp increase in spore count was found at 4^th week, particularly in wal sooriya kantha (157.17x10⁷ CFU/ml) while in contrary, the lemon, rambutan, bovitiya, jack and mango leaves showed poor performances in the mass production of T. harzianum. Based on these results, wal sooriya kantha can be successfully used as growing media for T. harzianum.

SAARC J. Agric., 21(1): 79-87 (2023)