Exploitation of indigenous strains of Trichoderma and Pseudomonas fluorescens for the control of damping off in chilli

Damping off disease complex is the major limiting factor for raising chilli in nursery. Antagonists were isolated from the soil samples collected from different chilli growing areas of Abohar, Malerkotla and Ludhiana of the Punjab state. Among the soil samples, 22.72 per cent soil samples had T.harzianum and 18.18 and 4.54 per cent soil samples showed presence of Pseudomonas fluorescens and Trichoderma viride, respectively. In in-vitro tests, Trichoderma harzianum (Th5) caused maximum growth inhibition of Pythium aphanidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. capsici i.e 50.23%, 46.98% and 53.18% respectively. Similarly, Pf3 isolate of Pseudomonas fluorescens had 1.11 cm, 1.01 cm and 0.27 cm zones of inhibition against Pythium aphanidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. capsici, respectively. Trichoderma harzianum Th5 isolate when applied as seed + soil treatment showed maximum germination (89.21%), minimum disease incidence (10.79%) and maximum inhibition of the disease (80.00%).