Full Length Research Paper

Effect of single application of Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas fluorescens on growth promotion in cotton plants

V. Shanmugaiah^1,2*, N. Balasubramanian^2, S. Gomathinayagam², P. T. Manoharan³ and A. Rajendran¹

¹P. G. Department and Research Centre of Botany, V. H. N. S. N. College, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India.

²Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai - 600 025, India.

³Department of Botany, Vivekananda College, Thiruvedagam West - 625217, Tamil Nadu, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: vshanmugaiah@yahoo.co.in.

Accepted 15 October, 2009

   Abstract

The most important and economically cultivated cotton plant was selected to test the growth promotion by Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas fluroescens with and without pathogens, Rhizoctonia solani and Macrophomina phaseolina. Of these, T. viride was found to be more effective than P. fluroescens on shoot and root length elongation. Seed germination percentage, root length, shoot length, fresh weight, dry weight and vigour index were significantly increased by T. viride and P. fluroescens. T. viride inoculated cotton plants increased 2.7 and 2.4 fold, where as P. fluorescens increased 2 and 1.8 fold for shoot and root length respectively. Pre-treated cotton seeds by T. viride showed 4 and 3.1 fold and P. fluorescens showed 3.1 and 2.8 fold shoot and root length elongation respectively when compared with the control.

Key words: Trichoderma viride, Pseudomonas fluorescens, cotton plant, plant growth promotion.