author(s)
Zeeshan, Musharaf Ahmad, Imran Khan, Bismillah Shah, Ahmad Naeem, Nangial Khan, Waseem Ullah, Muhammad Adnan, Syed Rizwan Ali Shah, Khwaja Junaid, Mazhar Iqbal

abstract
In the present study spent composts of button, oyster mushrooms and their combinations were used both in aqueous and powdered forms for the management of bacterial wilt of tomato caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. In-vitro and in-vivo experiments were conducted. Spent composts significantly reduced bacterial wilt of tomato under screen house conditions and produced larger growth inhibition zones of bacteria on artificial medium. Mixture of oyster and button mushroom restricts bacterial growth up to 8.43 mm followed by button mushroom compost with 7.80 mm. However, mixture of oyster and button composts performed better in the management of bacterial wilt of tomato than applied alone. Likewise, application of powdered spent mushroom composts was more effective than aqueous application. Similarly button mushroom compost was more effective against R. solanacearum than oyster compost both in powder and in extracted form. Mixture of oyster and button composts restricts disease severity up to 14.58% when applied as powdered form and up to 27% when applied as aqueous extracts. Moreover, spent mushroom compost improved all agronomic characteristics of tomato plants such as plant height, number of fruits per plant, fresh weight of plant, number of shoots per plant, root length, root weight, and dry plant weight. The ability of spent mushroom compost to reduce disease severity and enhance plant growth could be attributed to the alteration of physical structure of soil and encouragement of plant friendly microbes by the compost.