Soil Solarization Efficiently Reduces Fungal Soilborne Pathogen Populations, Promotes Lettuce Plant Growth, and Affects the Soil Bacterial Community.

ABSTRACT: Lettuce is the most cultivated leafy vegetable in Greece; however, due to the adopted intensive cropping system, its cultivation is susceptible to many soilborne pathogens that cause significant yield and quality losses. In the current study, the impact of various soil disinfestation methods such as solarization, chemical disinfestation, and application of a biofungicide were evaluated in a commercial field that has been repeatedly used for lettuce cultivation. The populations of soilborne pathogens Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium ultimum, Fusarium oxysporum, and Fusarium equiseti were measured via qPCR before and after the implementation of the specific disinfestation methods. Although all the tested methods significantly reduced the population of the four soilborn

SUBMITTER: Tziros GT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11352132 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature