Effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Glomus mosseae and G. intraradices and antagonistic fungi Pochonia chlamydosporia var. chlamydosporia and Purpureocillium lilacinum on disease indices and reproduction rate of Meloidogyne javanica in three peach rootstocks under greenhouse conditions

Biocontrol is one of the methods widely studied to reduce nematode damage. The biological control efficacy of two arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Glomus mosseae and G. intraradices and two antagonistic fungi, Pochonia chlamydosporia var. chlamydosporia and Purpureocillium lilacinum on disease indices and reproduction rate of root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne javanica were studied on three local cultivars of peach rootstocks namely Helendri, Shorabi3 and Gf677. The experiment was conducted as a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with 30 treatments and five replications under greenhouse conditions. Evaluations were performed 90 days after nematode inoculation by measuring the plant growth parameters and growth and reproduction rate of M. javanica. Results of nematode reproduction indices showed more effect of P. chlamydosporia var. chlamydosporia on reduction of nematode biological activity than other biocontrol fungi. The number of galls, egg masses, second stage juveniles and reproduction factor in GF677 treated with this fungus decreased comparing to control, as 42.2, 41.8, 39 and 6.36 percent, respectively. Although the fungus was effective on all stages of nematode development, but the number of egg masses and number of eggs per egg mass were more affected.