Mode of action of Eco-T (Trichoderma harzianum)
Read an article on Trichoderma harzianum from Cornell University, USA. (Adobe Acrobat PDF file [420kb])
Disease control
- Trichoderma spores germinate and colonize the soil immediately surrounding plant roots, living off the nutrients that all plants exude from their roots. As it is fast growing it is capable of out-competing and displacing crop pathogens (i.e. disease-causing organisms).
- Trichoderma forms various compounds which are inhibitory to the growth of crop pathogens.
- Trichoderma stimulates the plants natural immune system, making the plant more resistant to infection by disease-causing organisms.
Plant Growth
Some Trichoderma strains such as Eco-T can also enhance or stimulate plant growth and help buffer plants from extreme conditions such as waterlogging, drought, pH, nutritional stress, etc.
This is because Eco-T:
- Protects developing roots from naturally occurring sub-lethal pathogens, resulting in more feeder roots and many more root hairs.
- Improves root efficiency and nutrient uptake resulting from mycorrhizal-like associations.
- Stimulates the production of several natural plant hormones such as gibberellins and cytokinins, enhancing the growth of plants and even the rooting of cuttings. Seed germination is often also improved.
Trichoderma coils around, penetrates, and kills other fungi that are pathogenic (i.e. cause disease) to crops. It can digest their cell walls. The photos below (acknowledgement to Sackey Yobo), taken with an electron microscope, clearly show Eco-T (Trichoderma harzianum strain kd) killing off the disease-causing organism Rhizoctonia with both physical (penetrating) and chemical (dissolving) actions.
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| Eco-T or Trichoderma (T) fungal strands coil (C) around the Rhizoctonia (R) | Initial stages of degradation (D) as a result of Eco-T generated enzymes. T=Trichoderma, R=Rhizoctonia |
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| Penetration of the Rhizoctonia (R) commences. TP= Trichoderma penetrating | Further enzyme activity causes cell degradation. Compare the shape and consistency of the upper Rhizoctonia (R) to the lower area (LT) |
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| Exterior Eco-T is pulled away to expose hole where penetration has taken place (PH) and Eco-T has forced its way into the Rhizoctonia (R) organism | Enzyme action has destroyed the Rhizoctonia (R) pathogen to the extent of total breakdown |
- Find out more on Eco-T trial results
- Find out more on application rates of Eco-T
