Efficacy of Some Bacterial Biocontrol Agents as Seed Treatment against Root Knot Nematode, Meloidogyne incognita on Tomato
Pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two formulations (talc formulation and vermi formulation) of four bacterial nematode biocontrol agents viz., Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus megaterium and Pseudomonus flourescens as seed treatment against root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita on tomato. All the bioagents were tries at 10 and 20g / kg of seed. The experiment was terminated at 60 days after sowing the seed. The results revealed that all the treatments significantly increased the plant growth parameters and reduced the nematode multiplication over untreated control. However, maximum plant growth parameters and minimum galls per root system, eggmasses per root system, eggs per egg masses and final nematode population was recorded when seeds of tomato (var. Pusa Ruby) was treated with talc formulation of Pseudomonus flourescens @20g/kg followed by seed treatment with vermi formulation of Bacillus subtilis @ 20g/kg of seed.