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

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, T11-combination treatment of (T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 (seed inoculation with test pathogen followed by seed treatment with Trichoderma harzianum (10 g kg-1seed) + T2 (seed treatment with Pseudomonas fluorescens (10 g kg-1seed) + T3 (seed treatment with carbendazim (1 g kg-1seed) + T4 (soil application with neem cake (10 g kg-1soil) was found superior in all the parameters discussed. When tested for growth parameters, shoot length was recorded highest in T11 (59.2 cm), root length was recorded highest in T6 (10.0 cm) and total length was recorded highest in T11 (68.2 cm). Highest fresh weight (272.10 g) and dry weight (105.35 g) was also recorded from the same combination treatment.