Trichoderma (& treatment of Botrytis galanthina)

[johnw]

What is the name of the 'chipping' technique in your language, Croquin? (French?)
I wonder what it is called in German, Dutch etc?

I'm surprised it isn't crisping in the UK.

[Alan_b]

No, we call it French frying.

[Croquin]

Dear All !

I have tried Trichoderma on a potted Schlumbergera and on crocuses planted in the garden.
This was mainly a first experiment after being advised by Lesley about it on this forum.
I report some observations below.

1) Schlumbergera blooms for xmas and is therefore with flowers in december.
Trichoderma seems to have produced a weird effect on the biological cycle of the plant I tested : it started to bloom again in february, and continuously until now, with a set of gigantic flowers almost twice the usual size.
Because it has been flowering, it has not started to grow new "leaves" yet.
The negative side of the story is that the plant seems to rot from the compost, at least on those non-woody younger parts.
Replanting cuttings in the same pot results in the same phenomenon - I never had any issue having a schlumbergera cutting get rooted before !
Therefore I thought that Trichoderma was hungry and feeding of the plant, is that correct or possible ?

2) I also tried Trichoderma on a set of crocus plants that I knew to be infected with corm rot fungi (half rot corms planted last fall).
The new generation of corms has been apparently cleaned of the disease, which is indeed quite interesting.

Did those of you who have used Trichoderma before observed such positive and negative effects on their plants ?
How would you stop Trichoderma (kill it) when it starts attacking a potted plant ?
What other uses can we find for this fungus ?

Thanks for your answers.

[annew]

I treated some galanthus infected with stagonospora last year, and there was virtually no sign of disease this year.

[Ezeiza]

I have also tried Trichoderma following lovely Lesley enthusiastic advice and can confirm her mentioning that it does not work if the inorganic (mineral) content of the mix is high.

[Lesley Cox]

I've not heard or read of any plant as such being attacked, only some other fungi. Since it is supposed to stop (bad) fungal attacks, maybe something other than the trichoderma caused the rot of your plant Croquin? It's not a plant I know so can't really comment

[Croquin]

Thanks for your kind comments 

Hello Ann,
it is a good news to know how efficient it can be - to the point to eradicate rot problems on bulbous plants (those ones you will usually keep in the infected soil as a pain in the back).
Do you know if Trichoderma can be used against leaves fungi ?
How would you do that, spraying a solution I guess ?
Have you or someone else tried ?

Hello Lesley, here is some Schlumbergera pics - I'm sure that you know this plant.
http://whatafy.com/storage//2012/05/2012/05/02/apartment-plants-schlumbergera/Schlumbergera.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martoni/1854203161/#lightbox/

I was not asking a specific answer for Schlumbergera though - maybe someone who tried this biocontrol agent observed side effects with other plants ?
I read somewhere that some species of Trichoderma can be bad plant fungi.
It is not supposed tot be the case with the commercial strain I used, selected for its beneficial actions on plants and for its horticultural applications.
However, in the current case, I was supposing that - maybe, the strain turned to be too strong and fed on any organic material it found ?
Furthermore, if anything caused a wound to the plant roots or to its soft tissues, it could have been an open door to the fungus ?
My speculations only.

[Gerry Webster]

A seller on EBay is offering 'TNC Trichoderma Capsules' at £8.95 for 10:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TNC-Trichoderma-Capsules-Beneficial-Fungi-/250859985213?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D250859990500%26ps%3D54

The instructions are:  one capsule  to be dissolved in 1 litre of dechlorinated water & the solution watered on.

Has anyone tried this?

[Croquin]

no, I tried a powder - you buy any amount you want but usually it is sold in small packet doses of 10 or 20 g.
same using principle : to be dissolved into the watering solution or to be added to the hydroponics solution.

previously as far as I remember, Lesley or someone else was also mentionning granules to be mixed with the compost.

I would guess that for a small amount of potted plants, the capsule is nice and makes it of easy use.
For bigger soil surface, especially outdoors, powder offers larger possibilities.

on the e-bay add you've provided, T22 specifies the Trichoderma strain, I do not know if it has any meaning for end users though.

[Gerry Webster]

I treated some galanthus infected with stagonospora last year, and there was virtually no sign of disease this year.

Anne - have you used it with Narcissus? This year I had Stagonospora infections on N. rupicola & N. asturiensis & wonder whether to try trichoderma rather than a fungicide - what remains of my carbendazim.

[annew]

Hi Gerry, yes I used it on all my bulbs as I potted them. I usually have a low-level infection in some narcissi. This year there was none.

[Lesley Cox]

Oh yes Croquin, now you've sent the links, I know what you mean. We know them here as Christmas Cactus because they are in bloom then, through the summer. I've not grown them but my late mother-in-law had a nice collection.

Re leaf fungi, I've not had much of a problem with these but Trichoderma either watered into the planting hole or dug in as granules, totally solves the problem of wilt disease in clematis, quite a problem in commercial forms of large-flowered varieties here.

[Croquin]

I was sure !! 
You see, it has soft tissues that can be easily eaten by a fungi - athough it never happens usually.
That's why I speculated... as usual 

[Ezeiza]

".....it has soft tissues that can be easily eaten by a fungi ....................."

But, they have to rot first.

And Trichoderma can clean the soil/mix of disease but can not solve drainage problems.

[Croquin]

This is sound - supposing there was a drainage problem...