Effect of Application of Titanium Dioxide in the Management of Fusarium Wilt and Fruit Yield of Some Tomato Accessions

Tomato (Solanum lycopoersicum L.) is often threatened by wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporium f.sp lycopersici. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has been reported to promote plant growth and reduce disease severity. This experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of TiO2 application on incidence and severity of Fusarium wilt as well as yield indices of three susceptible tomato accessions. A 3 x 5 factorial experiment fitted into Completely Randomized Design and Randomized Complete Block Design in both the screenhouse and the field, respectively. All experiments were set up with three replications. The treatments consisted of three tomato accessions (CPTTO/19/191, CPTTO/19/193 and CPTTO/19/195) and TiO2 with four concentrations (0.3, 0.7, 1.0 and 1.3 ml/l) was applied using soil drenching. Plots without TiO2 application served as the control. In both screenhouse and the field experiments, application of 1.3 ml/l TiO2 significantly reduced the incidence and severity of Fusarium wilt with better yield of tomato fruit in the three accessions than the control plots and pots. The study concluded that application of TiO2 at 1.3 ml/l reduced incidence and severity of Fusaruim wilt of tomato and increased the yield of tomato.