Biological control of damping-off and plant growth promotion in soybean using Trichoderma virens

Abstract

Abstract Rhizoctonia solani is soil borne pathogen that causes damping-off in legumes including soybean. To reduce disease infection of R. solani in soybean, seven isolates of Trichoderma virens were used as seed treatments. Soil was artificially infected using R. solani grown in organic media. Agronomic parameters and total phenolics were recorded at vegetative phase. Treatments with T. virens T.v6, T.v4, T.v7, and T.v3 showed lower disease incidence (22% to 34%) than that of the control (46%). T. virens T.v6 induced higher shoot and root length compared to plants grown in sterile soil. Phenolic in T. virens T.v7 treated plants showed the highest content (2.69 mg GAE/g) and the increase of this content was 13.7% compared to the control. Higher number of normal seedling growth and lower disease incidence than the control were observed in these treated plants. Another treatment with T. virens T.v6 showed lower amount of phenolic content (2.53 mg GAE/g) and lower increase of this content (7.2%) than those of T. virens T.v7 treated plants. However, the T. virens T.v6 treated plants performed higher normal seedling growth, lower disease incidence than the control. T. virens T.v6 and T.v7 were promising for plant growth promotion and biological control agents.