Quantitative Analysis of Tea Farming Soil Using Trichoderma as a Biocontrol Agent
Priyakshi Bakatial
*
Department of Botany, Mount Carmel College (Autonomous), Bengaluru, India.
Mausomi Madhab
Department of Micology and Microbiology, TTRI, Jorhat, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
An experiment was been done using tea garden soil under three different treatments: Control – untreated soil, S+T – soil treated with Trichoderma, S+T+VC – soil treated with Trichoderma and vermicompost.
A method called serial dilution was done to count the number of microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, and Trichoderma in the soil. The results showed that the highest growth of Trichoderma was found in the soil treated only with Trichoderma. Adding of vermicompost along with it led to slightly lower in growth.
This study shows that Trichoderma is very useful in tea farming. It helps to control diseases, improves plant growth, and supports healthy soil. However, combining it with vermicompost didn’t increase its growth, so more research is further needed in order to understand how to use both together most effectively.
Keywords: Tea farming, Trichoderma, biocontrol agent, vermicompost