Biological control of damping-off of sugar-beet and cotton with Chaetomium globosum or a fluorescent Pseudomonas sp.

Abstract

Seed treatment with ascospores of Chaetomium globosum reduced damping-off of sugar-beet caused by seed-borne Phoma betae and soil-borne Pythium ultimum or Rhizoctonia solani in growth chamber experiments. Seed treatment with a fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. controlled Ph. betae and P. ultimum but not R. solani. Coating cotton seeds with ascospores controlled P. ultimum and R. solani damping-off. In some experiments, biological seed treatments were equally or more effective than seed treatment with captan. However, greater variability in disease control occurred with the antagonists than with captan. Fifty percent of freshly harvested ascospores of C. globosum germinated in 8 h on water agar. When ascospores were stored under air-dried conditions for 3 days to 2.5 years, germination increased to > 90%. Under same storage conditions, survival of Pseudomonas sp. was detected after 4 months. Antagonistic activities observed in vitro were hyphal coiling of C. globosum on R. solani, and mycostasis was induced by C. globosum or Pseudomonas sp. on agar and soil. The presumed cause of mycostasis is the diffusible antifungal metabolites which may also be involved in the biological control of damping-off.