Biological control of Rhizoctonia root rot of sugar beet in Iran

In this study, the antagonistic activities of eleven isolates belonging to 10 species of Trichoderma fungi including Trichoderma harzianum, T. atroviride (two isolates), T. viride, T. orientalis, T. citrinoviride, T. asperellum, T. spirale, T. crassum, T. pseudokoningi and T. ceramicum against rhizoctonia solani AG2-2, the causal agent of sugar beet root rot, were evaluated in a completely randomized design with four replications. Results showed that all Trichoderma isolates reduced the growth of pathogen significantly and the highest antagonistic effects were observed in dual culturing test in T. harzianum Z1 isolate, which caused 76.57% inhibition of pathogen mycelial growth. In greenhouse experiments, the efficacy of four selected Trichoderma isolates on sugar beet root rot control in Shirin cultivar was evaluated. Results showed that T. harzianum Z1, T. atroviride Z2, and T. orientalis Z4 caused 71.1, 66.6, and 58.3% decrease in root rot severity, respectively. In field experiments (2013-14) conducted in Hamedan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, the effect of selected Trichoderma isolates in comparison with fungal treatment (carboxin-thiram) and control treatment on the occurrence and severity of root rot was evaluated through artificial contamination by Rhizoctonia solani. Results showed that selected Trichoderma isolates were significantly different in terms of disease control and T. harzianum Z1 isolate caused 66.4% reduction in the incidence of infection and 56% reduction in root rot severity compared with control. Therefore, this isolate is considered as the most effective antagonist in decreasing of Rhizoctonia root rot disease of sugar beet root.