Pot experiment
Pot experiment was conducted in completely randomized
block design with three replications to evaluate the
performance of the most efficient isolates of TV19, TH7 and
TVr5 against tomato wilt. Thirty seeds of susceptible local
tomato variety ‘Manikhamnu’ were sown in 20cm diameter
clay pots filled with 1kg sterilized sandy loam soil and F.Y.M
(4:1) mixture. 20 days old culture of the mass multiplied
pathogen on sand maize meal water medium (90g sand, 10g
maize meal, 20ml distilled water) at 50g kg-1soil containing
106 cfu/g culture was inoculated one week before sowing in
the pots. Three pots inoculated with pathogen alone and three
uninoculated pots served as control. Pots were watered daily
and the experiment was maintained in poly house. In all the treatments, observations on pre-emergence and postemergence
seedling mortality were made respectively, 30
and 45 days after sowing. After two months of inoculation
experiment was terminated. Plants were uprooted, rinsed
free of soil and different the growth parameters such as root
length, shoot length, fresh root and shoot weight, dry root
and shoot weight were determined.