Biological Control of Early Blight of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) by the Use of Pseudomonas fluorescens (Flugge and Migula) under Field Condition

Tomato is the second most important vegetable crop. It is widely grown on all over the world. Diseases are the major constraint in economic crop production as they inflict heavy loss in tomato. Among the various fungal diseases, early blight was reported severe as it causes heavy damage to the crop. The main aim of this study is to explore the potentiality of native and most efficient isolate of P. fluorescens as biocontrol agent. A total 30 Pseudomonas fluorescens isolates were isolated from soil samples of different villages of Navsari district by serial dilution method on King’s B medium. The isolates were purified by observing under UV light. A field experiment was conducted for evaluation of P. fluorescens against diseases of tomato. Among the different treatments of P. fluorescens, treatment T8 i.e. combined use of all treatments recorded with minimum per cent disease intensity (37.78%) against early blight disease and maximum per cent disease intensity (69.33%) was recorded in the control (T9, water spray).