Tomato Growth Promotion by Trichoderma Asperellum Laboratory-Made Bioproduct

The endophytic fungus Trichoderma asperellum known as biological control agent has also capacity to stimulate plant growth. Tomato plants were treated with the moroccan T. asperellum laboratory-made biofungicidal and biostimulant product slurry at a concentration of 107 conidia.mL⁻¹ by dipping before planting and by fertigation with different volumes, 5 L, 10 L, 15 L and 20 L, three times every 20 days during cultivation. The tomato plants grew well compared to the control plants. The aerial part length, numbers of leaves, flowers and fruits respectively increased with time varying from 48.29 to 55.64/34.28 cm; 10.36 to 12.56/8.6; 6.86 to 9.72/5.2; 0 to 0.26/0 after the first application, from 79. 06 to 91.09/ 51.83 cm; 27.6 to 32.43/22.53; 23.9 to 42.4/9.8; 3.84–5.88/2.74 after the second application and from 95.55 to 112.12/70.53 cm; 39.92 to 45.62/22.48; 17.08 to 58.99/7.94; 14.32 to 23.2/12.14 after the third application. By the end of the trial, the root part length and the fresh weights of the aerial and root parts attained 53/48 cm; 555.96/238.3 g and 31.76/20.06 g respectively. T. asperellum was able to colonize the roots, stems and leaves of the tomato plants, with significant re-isolation percentages reaching 90%, 85% and 66.66%. The T. asperellum based bioproduct has shown its ability to promote the growth of tomato plants, the gain percentages of the different agronomic parameters are very important which can be multiplied by 2, 3 or even 5, as in some cases.