Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae and Trichoderma harzianum as Biological Control Agents against Panama Disease of ‘Cavendish’ Banana Caused by Fusarium oxysporum F. Sp. Cubense Tropical Race 4

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae (VAM) and Trichoderma harzianum against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubenseTR4 on ‘Cavendish’ banana plantlets and to determine the growth performance of ‘Cavendish’ banana plantlets applied with Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae and T. harzianum.

The experiment was laid-out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven treatments and replicated three times with five samples per replication. The treatments were as follows: T1- Negative control (w/out Foc), T2- Positive control (with FocTR4), T3- 5 g of VAM alone + Foc TR4, T4- 50 g of T. harzianumalone + Foc TR4, T5- 3 g of VAM + 50 g of T. harzianum+ Foc TR4, T6- 5 g of VAM + 50 g of T. harzianum+ Foc TR4, T7- 7 g of VAM + 50 g of T. harzianum+ Foc TR4.

Based on the result of the study, the different rates of VAM + T. harzianum delayed the symptoms appearance and reduced incidence and severity of Panama disease. Plantlets treated with 7 g of VAM + 50 g of T. harzianumreduced Foc TR4 development in terms of disease symptom appearance, has been delayed for seven (7) days; disease incidence which had a difference of 53.33%; disease severity had 36.67% compared with the Positive check.

On the effect of the agronomic characteristics, result showed significant differences from the data on the average plant height (cm) of ‘Cavendish’ banana plantlets at 60 and 90 DAT as well as the diameter of the pseudostem as influenced by VAM and T. harzianum.