Trichoderma bioagents, i.e., Trichoderma hamatum, T. harzianum and T. viride were isolated from the rhizospheric soil of the healthy pea plants. They were used in combination with the resistance inducing chemicals, Bion and compost for studying their impact on managing pea damping-off and root-rot diseases caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid (the pycnidial stage of S. bataticola Taub.) and Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn (the anamorph stage of Thanatephorus cucumeris (Frank) Donk.).
The inhibitory effect of the three bioagents as well as compost and resistance inducing chemicals (RICs), Bion, chitosan and salicylic acid was investigated to determine their inhibitory effect against each of M. phaseolina and R. solani in vitro and in vivo.
Data demonstrated significant inhibition to the linear growth of both M. phaseolina and R. solani due to using the tested bioagents, compost and the RICs compared to control treatment. This reduction was gradually increased by increasing the incorporated concentration to PDA medium. In addition, RICs were less efficient in this regard than Trichoderma spp. and compost.
The obtained data showed that soaking pea seeds in 50 mM Bion for six hours then pelleting with the inoculum of Trichoderma spp. and sown in soil amended with compost resulted in significant reduction to the incidence of damping-off and root-rot severity caused by each of the tested fungi with significant increase to the produced green pods yield, phenolic compounds, % nitrogen and % protein content compared with control treatment. This research provides alternative and safe compounds to management damping-off and root-rot diseases and consequently reduces environmental pollution as well as improving plant growth and seed yield of pea plants.