Endophytic Association of Trichoderma asperellum within Theobroma cacao Suppresses Vascular Streak Dieback Incidence and Promotes Side Graft Growth

The data used for this article was come from researh result in Bantaeng founded by WCF entitle Field application of Trichoderma asperellum for controlling Fascular streak dieback in SulawesiTrichoderma species are able to persist on living sapwood and leaves of cacao (Theobroma cacao) in an endophytic\ud relationship. In this research, we evaluated the ability of Trichodema asperellum introduced at the incision site in the bark for side\ud grafting with the concentration of 4 g/10 mL, 4 g/100 mL, and 4 g/1,000 mL (suspended in water) in suppressing vascular streak\ud dieback (VSD) incidence and promoting growth of side grafts in the field. The incidence of VSD in two local clones of cacao,\ud MCC1 and M04, without application of T. asperellum was 71.2% and 70.1% at 21 wk after grafting, respectively. However, when\ud the two clones were treated with a concentration of 4 g/10 mL T. asperellum, the incidence was 20.6% and 21.7%, respectively,\ud compared to 29.1% and 20.9% at 4 g/100 mL and 18.2% and 15.6% at 4 g/1,000 mL. By comparing to the control, the\ud treatment with the same concentrations of T. asperellum listed above, the total number of stomata in MCC1 decreased by 41.9%,\ud 30.2%, and 14.0% and in M04 by 30.5%, 21.9%, and ???2.5% (exception), respectively. Otherwise, the total area of stomata\ud opening increased by 91.4%, 99.7%, and 28.6% in MCC1 and by 203.8%, 253.5%, and 35.9% in M04, respectively.\ud Furthermore, the number of buds and branches treated with a mixture concentration on the the two clones increased by 90.7%\ud and 21.7%, respectively. These data showed that the application of T. asperellum to cacao scions while grafting can decrease VSD\ud incidence in side grafts and increase growth of grafts in addition to decreasing total number of stomata, increasing total area of\ud opened stomata, and increasing number of buds and branches