Trichoderma spp is a biocontrol fungus that is widely distributed in soil and used for plant disease control. Doraagri isolated Trichoderma asperellum from lawn and conducted it. The results showed that Trichoderma asperellum is resistant to high temperatures and high salinity, and can inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria in many ways. Trichoderma asperellum can also obviously reduce the occurrence of lawn brown spot disease and has great potential for biological control of lawn diseases.
The key to lawn care and management is disease management.There are many types of lawn diseases, and the most common disease in cool-season lawns is Turfgrass brown spot. Turfgrass brown spot is a very serious worldwide lawn disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani.
Because Rhizoctonia solani has a wide range of hosts, it infects all lawn grasses very quickly, causing repeated grass disease. So far, the control of lawn diseases is still based on chemical control. Extensive use of fungicides will not only cause harm to the environment, but also easily cause pathogenic bacteria to develop resistance, thereby making disease control more difficult.
Trichoderma Asperellum Characteristics
1. Environmental adaptability
Trichoderma asperellum can grow within 15-45°C, but 25-35°C is its most suitable temperature. Within this range, Trichoderma strains grow rapidly and can completely cover the culture medium in 3 days.
At 15°C, Trichoderma only covered half of the culture medium in 3 days because its growth was limited. Although trichoderma wasviable at 40°C and 45°C, only few hyphae can be seen growing on the culture medium.
2. Fight against pathogenic bacteria
Doraagri put Trichoderma and Rhizoctonia solani in a petri dish and cultured them for three days. The results showed that Trichoderma aculeae inhibited 57.8% of Rhizoctonia solani.
Trichoderma asperellum can inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria and strengthen turfgrass resistance to pathogenic bacteria. Trichoderma asperellum antagonizes pathogenic bacteria by secreting antagonistic metabolites.
After Trichoderma asperellum and pathogenic bacteria were co-cultured for 7 days, Trichoderma covered all the hyphae of Rhizoctonia solani, and 100% suppressed.
In conclusion
Trichoderma asperellum can adapt well to the environment, it is able to withstand high temperatures of 35℃, and it can grow as normal under the condition the the concentration of NaCl is 150g·L-1 or pH 5 to 12.
It can inhibit the growing of Rhizoctonia solani through competition with harmful bacteria and secretion of metabolites that can compete with it. After applying Trichoderma asperellum by root irrigation to enhance the resistance of turfgrass, diseases incidence such as brown spot disease can be radically reduced. If the Trichoderma asperellum is used properly, it can become a good biocontrol agent for turfgrass diseases.
For reference only.