Abstract

Oyembor R. Milicent, Timidi Francis and Ebinabor David-West Jr

The biological control potential of 0.2 cfu/ml of the bacterium; Psuedomonas flourescens was assessed by inundating two varieties of tomato; Roma VF and UC83B infected with 500; 1000; 1500 and 2000 eggs/(J2 ) juveniles of the nematode Meloidogyne javanica. The control sets were only infected with M. javanica and the randomised block designs with five replicates were adopted. Plants were grown in 30cm mouth-wide black polyethene bags containing steam sterilized soil mixture of loam and sand in the ratio of 1:1. Endophytic and rhizosphere populations of M. javanica were assessed at 30, 60 and 90 days after inoculation (DAI). Result of the study revealed that P. flourescens did not inhibit M. javanica egg hatch and root penetration 30 DAI in both tomato cultivars. However, the endophytic population density of M. javanica varied greatly within the 60 and 90 DAI, in both tomato cultivars, which was attributed to host specific factors. There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the height and the girth of the controls and that of the P. flourescens inundated replicates. There were significant difference s (p<0.05) in the root weight between the control and the P. flourescens induced replicates.