Effectiveness of Formulation using Different Microorganisms as Biocides against Ganoderma boninense

The white-rot fungus, Ganodenna boninense has been one of important pathogens in causing the basal stem rot (BSR) disease in oil palm and other perennial tree; especially in Malaysia. This study was conducted to use beneficial microorganisms as the antagonists in the dual culture tests against the pathogen, G. boninense. Initially, each of the microorganism isolate and the pathogen were inoculated simultaneously on media in the same Petri dish, opposite to each other with initial distance of 5 em to determine their interaction effect. The ability of the antagonists to inhibit the growth ofthe pathogen was assessed by measuring the radius of the G. boninense colony towards the antagonist after seven days of culture. A total of30 fungal isolates reduced the growth of the pathogen but neither of the two bacteria isolates used in this study showed effect on G. boninense growth. The most effective fungal isolate to inhibit growth of the pathogen was isolate 1864 with PIRG 97%. Formulation using eight selected isolates from the dual culture tests with PIRG >90% were tested on the pathogen. Treatment inoculated simultaneously with the pathogen (T2) was more effective against G. boninense compared to the treatment applied after five days growth of the pathogen (Tl) as from day 3 of culture, the pathogen had stopped growing. Further research on using beneficial microorganisms against the pathogen should be continued for its big potential as biological control agents