Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) is affected by accountable quantitative and qualitative losses due to, Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Lycopersici. It is a common vascular disease, resulting in extensive yield losses inmany tomato producing countries. In this, use of various chemicals for growth enhancement and disease control in plants has resulted in hazardous influence to the plant and human health. Thus, endophytic microbes assemblage have been known to decrease disease incidence in some crops and promote plant growth including tomato. Therefore, less harmful methods should be implemented and the possibility of using endophytic microbes for this purpose has been investigated.

The test pathogen, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici was isolated on PDA medium and proved its pathogenicity by sick soil method. A total of 12 endophytic fungi were isolated from tomato plant samples. Four isolates from stems such as; A. alternata, Phomopsis sp., A. solani and Pseudomonas sp.; three isolates from leaves such as; Paecilomyces sp., Cladosporium sp. and Chaetomium sp.; four isolates from roots such as; A. niger, Aspergillus flavus, F. solani, Rhizopus sp. and Bacillus sp. were tested by sick soil method in polybags. The results revealed that, A. flavus was found most effective in controlling disease and recorded wilt incidence (29.37%) with 62.50% disease inhibition followed by A. niger, Rhizopus sp., Chaetomium sp. and Pseudomonas sp., which recorded wilt incidence (30.09, 31.05, 34.94 and 36.28%, respectively) and which inhibited disease incidence (61.59, 60.36, 55.39 and 53.68 %, respectively) and were found effective in growth promotion.