Indian Phytopath. 62 (4) : 509-512 (2009) *Corresponding author: aryas3@rediffmail.com Comparative studies on the rhizosphere and rhizoplane mycoflora of tomato cv. ‘Pusa Ruby’ at planting and harvesting time REKHA ARYA* and S.K. SAXENA 1 Botany Department, Tikaram Kanya Mahavidyalaya Aligarh 1 Retired Professor, Botany Department, AMU, Aligarh ABSTRACT: Studies were made to compare the associated rhizosphere mycoflora of tomato in two different growing seasons. Fungi were isolated from rhizosphere and rhizoplane of tomato c.v. Pusa Ruby at plantation and harvest time during two growing seasons i.e. March & September. Higher number of fungi was isolated in first growing season. Microbial activity was more at early stages of growth of plants. Deuteromycetes were the dominant group throughout the studies, saprophytic and antagonistic fungi were higher during harvest. Key words: Tomato, rhizosphere / rhizoplane, mycoflora, two growing seasons Considerable studies have been made on the disease complexes involving various categories of pathogens and it was found that damage to plant is more in multi pathogenic conditions (1, 6). Most of these studies have been carried out in bi pathogenic conditions in green house where the involvement of other soil inhabitants is not taken into consideration. The damage to plant under such conditions in field is more when tomato plants are young and grown in September-December (the crop is grown during February- March and September- December). It is likely that microorganisms in soil might have some role to play. With these points in view it was considered desirable to study the rhizosphere and rhizoplane mycoflora of tomato grown in two growing seasons and under two stages of growth of plants. MATERIALS AND METHODS Raising of Seedlings tomato cv. ‘Pusa Ruby’ in autoclaved soil Roots of tomatoes at the time of transplantation and harvest were removed carefully from soil with minimum soil adherence. The soil removed from roots and adhering to the surface of roots was used for isolation of rhizosphere and rhizoplane fungi. Warcup’s soil plate method (7) was used for isolating rhizosphere fungi and serial root washing technique (1955) for rhizoplane fungi. The petriplates were incubated at 28 0 C for a week. There were ten petriplates in each replicate. The fungi were isolated and identified. Frequency of fungi in soil ( non- rhizosphere) served as control. The frequency of occurrence was determined as follows: Frequency of occurrence = No. of plates containing a fungus ———————————————— × 100 Total number of plates RESULTS In all thirty five species of fungi were isolated (Table 1). During the season September – December number of fungi isolated was more than present than March – June both in rhizosphere and rhizoplane. Moreover, the microbial activity was highest during early growth of plants as is evidenced by higher frequency and number of fungi (as shown in Table 2 and 3). Members of Deuteromycetes dominated both in rhizosphere and rhizoplane throughout the studies in the two growing seasons.