Harnessing Acremonium Zonatum (Sawada) Gams Oil Formulations as Water Hyacinth Control Mycoherbicides

Abstract

The effect of formulating Acremonium zonatum (Saw.) Gams in corn oil, mineral oil and glycerol was determined in a glasshouse at Maseno University Botanic Garden and laboratory. The study was situated at latitude -100’ 00’’ S and longitude 340 36’ 00’’E. A. zonatum was aseptically isolated from symptomatic plants and inoculated upon healthy water hyacinth plants in a CRD experiment. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 computer software. Oil and spore density effects were statistically significant at p < 0.05. The main effect of oil yielded an effect size of 0.281 indicating that 28.1 % of the variance in disease severity was explained by the oil formulation (F(2, 28) = 5.459, p = 0.01). Spore density yielded an effect size of 0.326 indicating that 32.6% of the variance in the study was explained by spore density (F(3, 28) = 4.515, p = 0.011). The interaction effect was not significant (F(6, 28) = 0.199, p = 0.974) indicating that there was no combined effect for the kind of oil used in the formulation of the A. zonatum and the spore density. The results suggested that A. zonatum pathogenicity varies with different spore concentrations, 1x 108 spores/ml being the most potent. A. zonatum has favorable characteristics for consideration as a mycoherbicide. Corn oil as formulation material was concluded to be the best formulation material for A. zonatum.