Determination of the Efficiency of Different Inoculation Methods for the Biological Control of Tomato Damping-Off Caused by Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium deliense

Abstract: Rhizobacterial isolates can be applied with different inoculation methods in studies of the biological control of plant disease agents. These methods include mixing the suspension of bacteria with autoclaved soil, dipping the roots of seedlings in a bacterial suspension during transplanting or coating seeds with a bacterial suspension before sowing. In this study, the effect of the biocontrol agent Pseudomonads putida 10fp, which was isolated from a tomato rhizosphere, was evaluated for its biocontrol potential against the tomato damping-off disease agents, Rhizoctonia solani and Pythium delicense, under in vivo conditions by using different inoculation methods (application dose and format). There was no difference in the disease incidence recorded for treatments in which P. putida fp10 was applied into the soil, seed or seed+soil and at different doses (108, 109 and 1011 cfu/ml ) against damping-off. However, plant growth was affected at different levels of inoculation. The best growth of both tomato varieties was observed after the application of a bacterial suspension into the soil at 108 cfu/ml