In the current work an attempt was made to find out the most suitable bioagents that have the ability to
protect Date palm cv. Zaghloul (Phoenix dactylfera L.) from some soilborne fungal diseases. Several soilborne
fungi were isolated from root rots of date palm trees located in the farms of El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt,
including; Fusarium solani, F. oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani and Macrophomina phaseolina, and their
pathogenicity were confirmed on date palm seedlings in the greenhouse. These fungi cause economic losses in
date palm yield and a wide range of other cultivated plants. Many different antagonistic isolates (bioagents) i.e.
Trichoderma album, T. harzianum, T. viride and T. hamatum were isolated from the rhizosphere soil of healthy
date palm trees. For comparison of results, bio-commercial preparations mainly “Bio-zeid (T. album 10×106 cfu/
ml)” and “Plant guard (T. harzianum 30×106 cfu/ ml)” were also used to detect their antagonistic potential against
the mycopathogens of date palm. In vitro antifungal efficacy of the bioagents was evaluated against all the
pathogens, where T. harzianum was the most effective as it caused 87.10, 81.55, 77.60 and 68.55% reduction in
the radial growth of F. solani, F. oxysporum, R. solani and M. phaseolina, respectively. In vivo assays under field
conditions, all tested biotic treatments significantly reduced severity of root rot diseases caused by the concerned
pathogens. Moreover, they increased the percentages of survived date palm plants in infested soils during both
successive growing seasons of 2016 and 2017, where T. harzianum was the most effective bioagent as it showed
an increase in date palm survival of about 82.35 and 86.67% at both seasons, respectively. In addition, all
bioagents enhanced the growth parameters of date palm, i.e. plant height (cm), number of leaves/ plant and
number of leaflets/ leaf, compared with the control treatment. Thus, these effective bioagents could be used as
biofungicides to control the root rot diseases of date palm in the field; accordingly, we could displace the use of
non-ecofriendly and health hazards synthetic fungicides.
Real Time Impact Factor:
Pending
Author Name: Mohamed Farouk Attya Ahmed
URL: View PDF
Keywords: Date palm (Phoenix dactylfera L.); soilborne fungi; Root rot; Trichoderma spp; biofungicides
ISSN: (Print) (ISSN 2537-0286), (Online) (ISSN 2537-0294)
EISSN:
EOI/DOI: 10.21608/NRMJ.2018.6619
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