RESEARCH ARTICLE

Journal of Oil Palm Research Vol. 34 (3) September 2022, p. 465-474

EFFECTS OF Phoma herbarum AS A BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AGENT OF GLYPHOSATE RESISTANT Eleusine indica

RUSLI, M H1*; SHARIFFAH MUZAIMAH, S A1; MAIZATUL, S M1 and IDRIS, A S1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21894/jopr.2021.0053
Received: 18 February 2021   Accepted: 14 November 2021   Published Online: 23 December 2021
ABSTRACT

Goosegrass (Eleusine indica) is one of the weeds that has a problem of herbicide resistance to glyphosate. This study investigated the potential use of Phoma herbarum as a biological control agent of glyphosate resistant E. indica. Nursery and field experiments showed that the application of 106 conidial suspension of P. herbarum demonstrated biofungicidal activity whereby 91.7% of treated E. indica died whilst for field experiment the mortality rate was recorded at 80%. The effect of P. herbarum was noticeable at 14 days after treatment and continued to increase at 21 days and 28 days after application. This study also investigated the direct effects of a few common herbicides that were used to control E. indica in oil palm plantations. The study found that the P. herbarum was compatible with herbicide diuron and was able to cause 80% mortality to E. indica when diuron was applied at full strength. The percentage mortality of E. indica increased to 91.67% when half strength diuron was applied. Thus, this study was to report the effectiveness of P. herbarum as a potential biological control agent against resistant E. indica and compatible with herbicide diuron.

KEYWORDS:


1 Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
6 Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi,
43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

* Corresponding author e-mail: mohd.hefni@mpob.gov.my