Soil solarization as an ecological method for the control of Fusarium wilt of melon in Italy
In the climatic conditions of the Piedmont north-western Po Valley (Italy), soil solarization and semi-solarization were tested in five consecutive years, alone or in combination with calcium cyanamide soil amendments or a non-pathogenic suppressive strain of Fusarium oxysporum, to develop alternati...
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Published in | Crop protection Vol. 25; no. 4; pp. 389 - 397 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Elsevier Ltd
01.04.2006
|
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | In the climatic conditions of the Piedmont north-western Po Valley (Italy), soil solarization and semi-solarization were tested in five consecutive years, alone or in combination with calcium cyanamide soil amendments or a non-pathogenic suppressive strain of
Fusarium oxysporum, to develop alternative and ecologically compatible methods to control
Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.
melonis (
Fom).
Compared with the control, semi-solarization and full solarization (solarization) increased the mean soil temperature at 25
cm depth by 8.6–12.6 and 12.6–16.3
°C, respectively. Solarization reduced the total fungal population by 57.8–96.0% at 25
cm and 97.0–99.7% at 5
cm depth. The populations of native
Fusarium spp. were reduced from 2–7×10
3 to 0–25 colony forming units (cfu) per gram of soil. Solarization reduced the population of
Fom grown in sterile soil samples from 3.8–60×10
5
cfu
g
−1 to 0–60
cfu
g
−1 in samples buried at 5
cm depth and 0–90
cfu
g
−1 in those placed at 15 and 25
cm depth in four out of five trials. Semi-solarization had a significant detrimental effect on total fungi,
Fusarium spp. and
Fom populations in some experiments. Solarization reduced Fusarium wilt incidence by 82–90% in three out of five trials. In one assay wilt was reduced by 43.5%, and in another there was no reduction in disease, possibly because of rainy weather during the treatment. The reduction in disease incidence (%) was proportional to the Ln of the time soil temperatures remained at or above 40
°C (
R
2=0.87) or at or above ⩾42
°C (
R
2=0.91) at 25
cm depth. Soil amendment with calcium cyanamide (80
g
m
−2) did not improve the efficiency of soil solarization. |
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Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2005.07.002 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0261-2194 1873-6904 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.cropro.2005.07.002 |