Impact of Trichoderma application strategy on tomato growth and rhizomicrobiome

Trichoderma has been widely used for plant growth promotion and the biological control of diverse diseases. However, the inconsistent field efficacy of Trichoderma remains a major barrier to its widespread use as a reliable alternative to synthetic pesticides. Various efficacy enhancement strategies have been investigated. Here, we evaluated how the timing of T. virens application (pre-, at-, and post-transplant) affected the growth of two tomato varieties and their rhizosphere microbiomes (via ITS and 16S amplicon metagenomic sequencing).