When the vegetative parts of plant are wounded or plant is felled, the fresh wound releases an adequate amount of nutrients which serve as substrate for the microorganisms coming to its contact. Thus, the wounds support for rapid growth and sporulation of pathogens. Also the antagonists colonize the wound in the same manner. Therefore, inoculation of wounds with antagonistic saprophytes for disease control are now been practiced in many countries. Some of the examples are discussed in this connection.
Research work of Risbeth (1963) gives a most successful example for control of invasion of vegetative parts of pine (freshly cut pine stumps) by Fomes annosus, by sparkling pellets of spores of Peniophora gigantean. This method is widely practiced in England.
The freshly cut surfaces of carnation cuttings when transplanted into soil were infected by Fusarium roseum, f. cerealis, a major uncontrolled disease. The protection of carnation was provided to the growing plants by inoculating the freshly cut surfaces with suspension of B, subtilis (Aldrich and Baker, 1970).
Trichoderma viride and B. subtilis are used to protect pruning wounds on apple tree shoots from the invasion by Nectria galligena causing cankers on it (Cook and Hunter, 1978). Inoculation of drill wounds in red maple with conidia of T. harzianum in glycerol gave the complete protection against invasion by hymenomycetes within 21 months after treatment, (Pottle, et al., 1977). Control of Agrobacterium tumifaciens causing crown gall on many plants was done by its another species, A. radiobacter on artificially made wounds on roots of tree seedlings (Moore, 1977). A. radiobacter produced an unusual antibiotic substance which selectively inhibited the stain of A. tumifaciens. This antibiotic is known as nucleotide bacteriocins. A bacteriocin can be defined as “an antibiotic produced by certain strains of bacteria which is active against other strains of the same of closely related species” (Kerr, 1982).