Abstract:
As tea is a long duration perennial crop it is very much prone to attack by
several pathogens. Brown root rot disease (Fomeslamoensis (Murr.) Sacc. and Trott) is
the one of the important primary root disease of teawhich, inhibits plant growth, causes
yellowing and wilting of leaves, defoliation, branch dieback, and affect plant death.An
antagonist is broadly defined as an opponent or adversary. In biological control of plant
pathogen, antagonists are biological control agents (BCA) with the potential to interfere
in the life process of plant pathogens. In the present work more than 20 fungal isolates
were tried and out of which four isolate have exhibited antagonistic activity against the
pathogen F. lamoensis.These four selectedisolates were found to be fast growing and on
coming close to the pathogen then into it, eventually overgrew, except Penicillium sp.
No clear inhibition zone was noticed in between isolates and F. lamoensis. The genus
Trichoderma showed ‘F’ type of colony interaction. Among of these Trichodermaviride
and T. citrinoviride showed highest antagonism followed by Aspergillusniger and
Penicillium spp.
