Development and evaluation of native biocontrol microbial consortia for effective management of Ralstonia solanacearum of ginger

As many as 4 Pseudomonas fluorescens and 4 Trichoderma isolates were isolated from the soil samples collected from the ginger rhizosphere and the pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum were also isolated for the infected rhizomes of ginger and used for further studies. In in vitro dual culture screening studies, the Pseudomonas fluorescens- 4 showed maximum inhibitions of 55.00 per cent and Trichoderma sp - 4 showed 60.70% of inhibition over control Ralstonia solanacearum. Further, the efficient biocontrol consortia of Pseudomonas fluorescens- 4 and Trichoderma sp- 4 were developed and evaluated against Ralstonia solanacearum under greenhouse condition in combination with antibiotic [Streptocyclin] at the rate of 0.5 g and fungicide [Copper oxychloride] 3g/l and the percentage of Ralstonia solanacearum causing wilt disease incidence of ginger was recorded at 15 days interval. The incidence of Ralstonia solanacearum wilt was found to be severe in the pathogen control (80.33%) were the direct inoculum of pure culture of Ralstonia solanacearum was imposed. However the treatments receiving the combined inoculation of Streptocyclin, Copper oxychloride, Pseudomonas fluorescens- 4 and Trichoderma- 4 recorded less percent disease incidence was 20% at the end of crop indicating the integrated use of chemical control along with the effective biocontrol consortia.