Effect of Trichoderma Culture Filtrates of as Inducer on Growth Parameters of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) against Fusarium Wilt

Aims: The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of culture filtrates from different Trichoderma isolates at 10% concentration on the growth parameters of tomato plants over two growing seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23).

Study Design: The experiment was performed both in vitro and in vivo condition, Completely Randomized Design (CRD) used for in vitro and Randomized Block Design (RBD) used for in vivo experiment

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was performed at Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, Kanpur (India) during 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Methodology: The soil sample collected from 12 different location of India and Trichoderma isolated and these different isolates used to produce their individual culture filtrate and these culture filtrates further use with 10% concentration as treatment for tomato plant. The effect of culture filtrates on plant height, root length, number of branches, fresh and dry shoot and root weight were observed under the experiment.

Results: Results show significant improvements in plant height, root length, fresh and dry weights and number of branches in all culture filtrate treated plants involving T9 (seedling treatment + one foliar spray with culture filtrate of Trichoderma Nagaur), which consistently outperformed other isolates. Plant height increased to 43.06 cm in 2021-22 and 44.56 cm in 2022-23 at 40 days after transplanting with isolate T9 treatment followed by culture filtrate of Trichoderma Jabalpur (T7) and Trichoderma Banda (T6) showed 11.56, 22.96, 33.72, and 37.15 cm in 2021-22, and 11.38, 23.24, 34.46 and 36.08 cm for T6 in the same year. Among all the culture filtrates, the treatment T9 significantly enhances root length, fresh shoot and root weights and the number of branches. The plants treated with isolate T9 also exhibited an increase of 98.94% in root fresh weight and 42.31% in shoot weight.

Conclusion: The findings confirm the growth-promoting potential of the T9 Trichoderma, attributed to mechanisms such as hormone production, enhanced nutrient uptake and improved root architecture. These results align with previous studies demonstrating the benefits of Trichoderma species in plant growth enhancement.