Impact of Trichoderma harzianum and bacterial strains against Striga hermonthica in Sorghum

A series of laboratory and green house experiments were conducted to investigate the efficacy of Trichoderma harzianum fungi, bacteria ( Flavobacterium, Bacillus megatherium var. phosphaticum (BMP) and Azomonas ) on Striga hermonthica early developmental stages , incidence and sorghum growth under laboratory and greenhouse conditions. The first laboratory experiment results showed that application of BMP + Flavobacterium significantly inhibited S. hermonthica seeds germination during and after conditioning in response to GR24 concentrations as compared to medium control. In the second laboratory experiment, application of the filtrate of T. harzianum alone or in combinations with bacteria significantly inhibited S. hermonthica germination and haustorium initiation as compared to the corresponding control. From greenhouse experiment results, S. hermonthica emergence significantly reduced by T. harzianum and insignificantly by the combination of Flavobacterium + BMP + T. harzianum . T. harzianum followed by the combination of Flavobacterium + BMP gave the highest increment in plant height. T. harzianum significantly increased sorghum number of leaves as compared to the infested control. The combination of Flavobacterium + BMP + T. harzianum gave the highest number of leaves. The combination Flavobacterium + BMP gave the highest sorghum shoot dry weight, followed by T. harzianum . While the highest sorghum root dry weight was obtained from the combination of Flavobacterium + BMP + T. harzianum . Generally, the combination of T. harzianum + Flavobacterium + BMP reduced S. hermonthica infestation and enhanced sorghum growth in comparison to the infested control.