Identification of some saffron corm rot fungi and their control

Abstract

In order to isolation and identification of causal agents of corm rot and their control, the sampling was done from corms in farms of Bushroueye, southern Khorasan province. After culturing of sections of infected corms, the fungi, Penicillium digitatum, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizopus stolonifer were isolated and identified. For their control test, four concentrations of Pseudomonas fluorescens CHAO, Trichoderma harzianum Bi, and four concentrations of fungicides, cupper oxichlorore and benomil,were used with four replications. The control effect of antagonists and fungicides were determined by measurement of diameter of pathogens colony on medium. The results showed that the maximum of control of antagonistic fungus were obtained in concentrations of 1×107 and 1×108, and in the case of antagonistic bacterium wereshown in concentrations of 1×109 and 1×1010. The fungicides had maximum control in concentrations of 3×10-3 and 4×10-3. In general, among of the treatments, T. harzianumwas most effective to reducing the growth of pathogenic fungi.