Effect of seed treatment with biocontrol agents, organic amendments and fungicide on seedling emergence, pre and post emergence mortality and growth parameters of Safflower

The effect of seed treatment with bioagents, organic amendments, fungicide
and their combinations on seedling emergence, pre-emergence, post-emergence mortality and
growth parameters of safflower conducted in glass house conditions at Department of Plant
Pathology, College of Agriculture, PJTSAU, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. The dominant
pathogen, which causes Fusarium wilt of safflower, was isolated and identified as Fusarium
oxysporum f. sp. carthami commercial isolates of Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas
fluorescens were used in this study and isolates supplied by Bio fertilizer unit, PJTSAU,
Hyderabad. Under in vitro conditions, the results revealed that among all the treatments
tested, T 11 -combination treatment of (T 1 + T 2 + T 3 + T 4 (seed inoculation with test pathogen
followed by seed treatment with Trichoderma harzianum (10 g kg -1 seed) + T 2 (seed treatment
with Pseudomonas fluorescens (10 g kg -1 seed) + T 3 (seed treatment with carbendazim (1 g kg –
1 seed) + T 4 (soil application with neem cake (10 g kg -1 soil) was found superior in all the
parameters discussed. When tested for growth parameters, shoot length was recorded highest
in T 11 (59.2 cm), root length was recorded highest in T 6 (10.0 cm) and total length was
recorded highest in T 11 (68.2 cm). Highest fresh weight (272.10 g) and dry weight (105.35 g)
was also recorded from the same combination treatment.