2025/01/27 by Haruna, S. G., Abdulkadir, M. H., Adamu, S. H. +2
#Bio-fortified compost #Fusarium wilt of tomato #Trichoderma sp. #disease incidence and severity #vascular discolouration
paper · doi:10.60787/njhs.v28i3.64-76
Field experiment was conducted at the Research and Teaching farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano to evaluate the effect of host resistance and compost bio-fortified with Trichoderma spp. on Fusarium wilt of tomato. The experiment was a 2 x 2 x 5 factorial, laid out in a split-split plot design. The treatments consisted of two tomato varieties (Roma-VF and UC 82B) assigned in the main plot, bio-fortification (with Trichoderma sp. and without Trichoderma sp.) as sub- plot while organic amendments: - Compost-A = (20% poultry manure + 80% cow dung); Compost-B = (10% poultry manure + 90% cow dung); Compost-C = (7% poultry manure + 93% cow dung); Ridomil Gold® (check) and Control, constituted the sub-sub-plot. Each treatment was replicated thrice. Treatments on the respective plots were applied seven days before transplanting. Data were collected weekly on disease incidence and severity, while vascular discolouration was measured after harvest. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and treatment means were separated using LSD at 5% level of significance. Results showed that Roma-VF grown on soil amended with compost-A bio- fortified with Trigoderma sp. had lower disease incidence (31.8%) and severity (21.7%) compared to the other treatments. Tomatoes produced on soil treated with compost-A bio-fortified with Trichoderma significantly showed least vascular discolouration (2.32 cm) compared to other treatments. Transplanting Roma-VF on soil amended with 25 t ha-1 of compost-A bio-fortified with Trichoderma sp. is recommended as easy to use and ecofriendly method of managing Fusarium wilt for sustainable tomato production.