Effect of weeding and insecticidal application on fungal load of harvested soybean seeds

抄録

A field experiment comprising four weeding regimes and four levels of insecticidal application factorially combined and fitted in a randomized complete block design was carried out to determine their effects on seed mycoflora load of soybean at harvest. The different weeding regimes and insecticide application levels showed no significant consequence on mycoflora load of harvested seeds in treated plants. However the different combinations of weeding and insecticidal application had significant effect (p<0.05) on the mean number of fungi isolated from the harvested seeds of soybean cultivar TGX 1448-2E. A combination of weeding (at least once) and insecticide application (at least twice) reduced fungal flora of the seeds significantly (p<0.05). Aspergillus niger, Curvularia lunata and Penicillium oxalicum were the most affected fungal isolates. The mean number of Fusarium oxysporum and Phomopsis sp. were not significantly different throughout the study.