Effect of Metarhizium anisopliae and Trichoderma harzianum on root knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica

To evaluate the effect of Metarhizium anisopliae and Trichoderma harzianum on root knot nematode (Meloidogyne javanica) in tomato, experiments was performed under controlled as well as greenhouse conditions. Volatile and non-volatile tests showed that there is no inhibitory effect against every one of each biocontrol agents. On the larval mortality and inhibition of egg hatching, a laboratory test was performed in a completely randomized design with eight treatments in four replicates. It has been shown that whole treatments have significantly different with control. The best treatment that caused maximum larval mortality was T. harzianum culture filtrate, and most effective treatment in egg hatch inhibition was M. anisopliae culture filtrate. There was no significant effect of mixture of suspensions and culture filtrates of both biocontrol agents. A greenhouse test was performed in a completely randomized design with five treatments in four replicates. In this test, T. harzianum increased growth of plants in comparison to uninoculated and inoculated controls. M. anisopliae improved the growth factors in comparison to negative control, but not in positive control. Both of bioagents considerably decreased the nematode-related factors including root gall. M. anisopliae had more effect on nematode-related factors than T. harzianum. Under greenhouse condition, there was no significant effect of the mixture of both fungi against the tested nematode.