Exploitation of Antibiotics and Biocontrol Agents for the Management of Root (Wilt) Disease in Coconut Palms

Abstract

Antibiotics (oxytetracycline hydrochloride) and bioconsortia Pseudomonas fluorescens strain (Pf1), Bacillus subtilis (EPC 5) and Trichoderma viride (Tv1) were used to evaluate their efficacy against the root (wilt) disease in coconut under two different field conditions. Field trial was conducted at hot spot area of the disease with a local ‘Tall’ variety of coconut. The results revealed that the root feeding of 100 ml of oxytetracycline hydrochloride @ 1000 ppm at monthly intervals up to one year resulted in the remission of root (wilt) disease symptoms in addition to increasing the nut yield compared to untreated control palms. This treatment was followed by the soil application of bioconsortia (Pf1+EPC5+Tv @ 100 g each+ 5 kg FYM/palm). Biochemical and physiological analysis revealed that the chlorophyll and soluble protein content were found to be increased and the stomatal resistance was found to be reduced in the bioconsortia (Pf1+EPC5+Tv) treated palms compared to control palms.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.001025

Pages

229 - 232

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

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