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Production of shrunken-2 sweet corn is often limited by poor establishment. Good root development is necessary for establishment, and it can be limited by stress or disease. Trichoderma harzianum strain 1295-22 was developed as a biocontrol fungus with particularly strong root-colonizing ability. In addition to acting as a biocontrol agent, it stimulates root growth. In greenhouse experiments using field soil, root dry weight 21 days after planting was 500 mg, greater compared with 320 mg in uninoculated controls, an average increase of >50%. The thoroughness of soil exploration more than doubled, from 31% (control) to 70% (Trichoderma) of the soil being within 1 cm of a root. The difference in performance was not attributable to disease: no disease symptoms were evident, the occurrence of disease organisms was low, it was the same in both treatments, and it was not associated with smaller plants. Furthermore, the greatest differences were noted in steam-sterilized soil. Colonization of the roots by Trichoderma was related to the age of the root. The oldest part of the radicle had 106 cfu/g root DW. Branched seminal roots had 105.5 cfu/g. Even the rapidly growing tips of the first-whorl roots were well-colonized (104.7 cfu/g). The mechanism of increased root growth has not been identified, but colonized roots acidify about 0.1 pH units more than control roots, which could cause both faster acid-growth and increased ion uptake. Ion leakage into distilled water is about 25% lower in colonized roots.
Sweet corn (Zea mays L.) varieties carrying the sh2 gene are in high demand, but such varieties have poor stress tolerance, especially during plant establishment. Trichoderma harzianum Rifai strain 1295-22 is a biocontrol fungus developed to provide season-long colonization of crop roots. It has the potential to reduce root rot and increase root growth. In the absence of detectable disease, colonization by Trichoderma increased root and shoot growth by an average of 66%. The enhancement was not uniform among the plants. Low- and intermediate-vigor plants were larger in the presence of Trichoderma, but high-vigor plants were not further enhanced by the fungus. Seeds that were subjected to oxidative stress with 0.05% NaOCI had much-reduced vigor; subsequent treatment with Trichoderma fully restored vigor. This result indicates that the damage caused by hypochlorite is specifically repaired by Trichoderma. Treatment of imbibed but unemerged seeds with cold (5/10 °C night/day) for varying periods reduced subsequent growth. Plants with Trichoderma-colonized roots were 70% larger at all durations of cold treatment. The absence of interation indicates the growth reduction due to cold and the growth enhancement due to Trichoderma are by different mechanisms. Allelopathic reduction in root growth by rye was mimicked by applying benzoxazolinone to the soil. Trichoderma-colonized roots grew faster, but the characteristic shortening of the radicle still occurred. There was no interaction between Trichoderma and allelopathy, indicating that these two treatments affect growth by independent mechanisms. The different ways that growth was enhanced by Trichoderma lead us to propose that this fungus acts, in part, by reversing injurious oxidation of lipids and membrane proteins. Root growth is markedly enhanced by colonization with Trichoderma harzianum. This enhancement can restore some stress-induced growth reduction and may directly reverse oxidative injury.
A strain of the biocontrol fungus Trichoderma harzianum was tested for effectiveness in improving the performance of sh2 sweet corn using a variety of delivery methods. In greenhouse trials, Trichoderma seed treatment reduced the proportion of weak plants (unlikely to make a marketable ear) from 40% to 10%. This is evidence that the characteristically uneven stand establishment of supersweet corn should be overcome by using Trichoderma. In field trials, Trichoderma and Gliocladium (a related fungus) were inoculated as a seed treatment without fungicide in spring-tilled plots. Yields of uninoculated controls were 2.2, Gliocladium-treated were 2.6, and Trichoderma -treated were 3.6 T/ac. Delivering the same lines of fungus in the fall to a rye cover crop resulted in high populations the following spring. The cover crop was killed and fungicide-treated seed of `Zenith' sweet corn was planted without tillage. Yield with Trichoderma was 4.0, with Gliocladium was 3.7, and uninoculated was 2.4 T/at. The uninoculated, conventionally-tilled plots also yielded 4 T/at. Thus the beneficial fungi overcame the inhibition caused by no-till. Trichoderma was delivered effectively both as a seed treatment and on a winter cover crop to improve stand uniformity and overall yield.
Abstract
Several chemicals applied to dry seeds by means of organic solvents were successful in preserving seed quality as determined by germinating capability of seeds or ATP content. The fungicide (pentachloronitrobenzene)-treated, injured or healthy pea (Pisum sativum L. cv. Alaska) seeds were highly resistant to infection by Aspergillus ruber (Konig, Spiekerman and Bremer) Thom and Church (NRRL 52), a storage fungus. The insecticide, Chlorpyrifos caused the lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L. cv. Fordhook 242) seeds to produce seedlings with reduced levels of damage from the seed-corn maggot, Hylemya platura (Meigen). The antibiotics, chloramphenicol and puromycin, slowed down the rate of deterioration of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Grand Rapids) seeds stored under accelerated aging conditions [43°C & 85% Relative Humidity (RH)].