Following this, cells from actively growing 2-day-old cultures of each soil bacterial isolate were dotted on the WF-P plate. This was done by touching one of the bacterial colonies
with the tip of an inoculation loop (diameter 4 mm) and subsequently touching the plate. The experiment was performed with three replications per isolate. Inhibition zones formed by the isolates against Xoo after 48 h of incubation at 28 ± 2 C were recorded for selection of strong antagonists to be used in further investigations