FORMULATION OF TRICHODERMA AS A BIOCONTROL AGENT USING GROUNDNUT AS SUBSTRATE

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to evaluate the growth of Trichoderma on various groundnut treatments; whole nuts, coarse blend, smooth blend. The experiment was carried out in the Crop Science Laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City. The experiment was laid in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) using three treatments which were replicated three times. Media was prepared (PDA), antibiotics were added and about 0.5cm pure culture Trichoderma spp. was introduced into it. The 14 days old Trichoderma spp. was introduced into 250g of each treatment type. The growth was physically observed for two weeks. Pellets were made, labelled and packed. Viability tests were done to see the viability of Trichoderma spp. after pelleting. Different means were separated using Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at 5% level of probability, using GenStat Release Twelfth edition statistical package. The LSD value of the growth of Trichoderma between the treatments at 5% level of probability was not significant, indicating that Trichoderma growth was better on raw groundnut treatment than the rest treatments.