Evaluation of the efficiency of Trichoderma, Penicillium, and Aspergillus species as biological control agents against four soil-borne fungi of melon and watermelon

Egyptian Journal of Biological Pest Control

Table 5 Damage reduction rate of shoot and root dry weight (%) and disease severity index values recorded by melon seedlings inoculated with two F. oxysporum f. sp. melonis isolates and treated preventively by four Aspergillus spp. isolates, two Penicillium spp. isolates, and two Trichoderma spp. in vivo assay

Antagonists	Damage reduction rate of shoot dry weight %^a		Damage reduction rate of root dry weight %^a		Disease severity index^a
Antagonists	FOM1	FOM6	FOM1	FOM6	FOM1	FOM6
A. flavus	40.61a^b	42.15a	51.89a	53.2a	0.33b	0.5b
A. fumigatus	39.89a	42.25a	49.63a	52.55a	0.5b	0.67b
A. niger	21.73bc	18.28b	34.6b	21.27c	1.67a	1.83a
A. terreus	36.66ab	37.75a	46.86ab	42.19ab	0.83ab	0.67b
P. italicum	27.19abc	20.49b	38.04b	32.53abc	1ab	1b
P. digitatum	37.81ab	32.68a	47.17ab	32.53abc	0.83ab	0.67b
T. viride	17.61c	12.59b	23.92b	23.92c	1ab	1.33ab
T. harzianum	28.75abc	32.97a	40.87b	40.46ab	1ab	0.5b
P value^b	> 0.05	> 0.05	> 0.05	> 0.05	> 0.05	> 0.05

^aDamage reduction rate values present the mean of three replicates (5 plants/replicate); R (%) = ((DWA − DWP) / DWA) × 100, where DWA is the dry weight (shoot and root) of inoculated plants with antagonist and DWP is the dry weight (shoot and root) of inoculated plant with only the pathogen and disease severity index scale (Table 3), which present the mean of three replicates (5 plants/replicate)
^bDuncan’s multiple range test: values followed by different letters are significantly different at P ≤ 0.05