Biocontrol agents of Botrytis cinerea tested in climate chambers by making artificial infection on tomato leafs

To reduce the use of chemical agents, that are causing damage to the environment, in the fight against Botrytis cinerea, different BCA's were tested for their possibility to control Botrytis cinerea in a biological way. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the different micro organisms and Elot-Vis, experiments were carried out in climate chambers with 5 weeks old tomato plants. Leafs on the plant were inoculated with drops of a suspension that contained spores of Botrytis cinerea. The possible antagonists that were tested in these experiments were Trichoderma harzianum (Trichodex), T. asperellum (Biofungus), T. hamatum (T382), Bacillus subtilis (Serenade and Phytovit) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7NSK2 and KMPCH). For all these different micro organisms the direct and the indirect influence on Botrytis cinerea was investigated. In tests where the direct influence of the antagonists was examined, the spores of the moulds or the bacteria were suspended together with spores of Botrytis cinerea and subsequently drops of this suspension were pippeted on the leafs. After a while by ideal circumstances for Botrytis cinerea the infections on the inoculated leafs were counted. For the indirect influence of the antagonists, also leafs of 5 weeks old tomato plants were inoculated with a suspension of Botrytis cinerea spores. The roots of the tomato plants that were used for testing the indirect influence were treated during there growth with a suspension of the antagonist to see if induced systemic resistance pathway (ISR) was activated. For testing the effectiveness of Elot-Vis, tomato plants were sprayed a few times with a solution of this product during their growth. Results of the climate chamber test of the plants that were treated with Elot-Vis, showed a reduction of Botrytis cinerea infections on the inoculated leafs. Biological control agents seem to be not always very effective against Botrytis cinerea. The biological control agents that are containing micro organisms are also depending on the circumstances of the environment for an optimal development. These conditions are not always that optimal to compete with Botrytis cinerea or other micro organisms that are present on the plant.