The Effect of Using Vitavax Fungicide on Microbial Flora of Peas and Barley Roots and Some Vegetative Characteristics

The fungicide Vitavax was used to fumigate both barley and pea seeds at concentrations; 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 mg/g seeds and kept for a period reaching five months. The data obtained indicate that germination percentage and the plant growth characteristics were slightly affected with differences in the two plants under investigation. With regard to microbial content in both rhizosphere and rhizoplan; the total viable count was slightly affected after one month of storage, but the counts remained in a good rate till the 5th month of storage. The dominant strains belonged to Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Micrococcus, Sarcina and Actinomyces. The counts of Azotobacter were not affected in a high degree. The fungicide concentration of 0.3 mg/g was the best among the treatments with 3 months storage period, for either plant growth parameters or bacterial counts although it reached five months with other treatments.