Management of Meloidogyne javanica by Bacterial Antagonist, Pseudomonas fluorescens as Seedling Root Dip in Tomato* Verma K.K. Department of Nematology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125 004, India. *Paper presented in National Symposium on Recent Advances & Research Priorities in Indian Nematology, 9–10 December, 2005 at IARI, New Delhi. Abstract A preliminary screen house study was conducted to see the efficacy of a bacterial antagonist, Pseudomonas fluorescens (Pf1) as seedling root dip in its aqueous formulation @ 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 per cent (w/v) dose/dilution. The healthy and root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica infested tomato seedlings were root dipped in 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 per cent dilutions for half an hour and then transplanted in M. javanica infested soil in 15 cm pots under different set of experiments. The results obtained 45 days after transplanting revealed that root dipping of healthy (no galls) tomato seedlings was effective in enhancing plant growth as well as reducing nematode galling and fecundity at 2.0 and 3.0 per cent dilution of P. fluorescens as compared to untreated check. The per cent reduction in galling over untreated check was 32.8, 29.6 and 6.4 at 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0 per cent dilution, respectively. Similar trend was observed in respect of egg masses and final soil population of J2. Similarly, in another set of experiment, root-knot nematode infested (galled) tomato seedlings dipped in aqueous formulation of P. fluorescens indicated that as compared to healthy seedlings, root dip was not much effective in reducing nematode multiplication. The per cent reduction in galling over untreated check was 19.0, 18.0 and 9.0 at 3.0, 2.0 and 1.0 per cent dilution of P. fluorescens. Similar trend was also observed with number of egg masses and final J2 population in the soil. Top Keywords Biocontrol, Lycopersicon esculentum, Meloidogyne,javanica, Pseudomonas fluorescens. Top |