Abstract
Organic farming is currently the fastest growing agricultural sector worldwide. However, diseases and weeds are among the major factors limiting its expansion. The use of cover crops has been shown to reduce weeds and minimize soil-borne pathogen populations through increased organic matter deposition, which also improves soil structure and porosity. Reflective and colored plastic mulches have also been shown to reduce vector borne diseases on many vegetable crops, including tomato. Such measures to combat disease depend on other variables and are generally site-specific. Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of the winter cover crops, crimson clover, rye, hairy vetch, and Austrian winter peas and reflective polyethylene mulch with or without biofungicides on severity of diseases and fruit yield of tomato. Plant height, fruit weight, number of fruits per plant and the type of foliar and fruit diseases observed including their severity were determined. Tomato fruit rot incidence was significantly lower in tomato plants grown following hairy vetch and Austrian winter pea compared to plants in fallow plots. Reflective polyethylene mulch was significantly (p = 5%) better than control (no mulch) for fruit yield, number of fruits/plant and plant height. However, plants on reflective polyethylene mulch showed significantly more severe bacterial spot disease. Application of spent mushroom compost under polyethylene mulch significantly enhanced tomato fruit yield and number of fruits/plant compared to the biofungicide Root Guardian®, but increased bacterial spot severity compared to Plant Guardian®. The results of this study indicated that winter cover crops enhance yields of tomato by minimizing disease while reflective polyethylene mulch and spent mushroom compost are conducive to growth and fruit yield in field-grown organic tomato.
Highlights
Organic crop production has gained significant popularity among both consumers and producers in recent years due to health benefits, cash premiums and positive environmental impacts
Tomato fruit rot incidence was significantly lower in tomato plants grown following hairy vetch and Austrian winter pea compared to plants in fallow plots
Application of spent mushroom compost under polyethylene mulch significantly enhanced tomato fruit yield and number of fruits/plant compared to the biofungicide Root Guardian®, but increased bacterial spot severity compared to Plant Guardian®
Summary
Organic crop production has gained significant popularity among both consumers and producers in recent years due to health benefits, cash premiums and positive environmental impacts. Due to exclusion of synthetic pesticide use in this production system, effective strategies are needed to mitigate resurgent diseases which could become a major production constraint for the small organic vegetable grower. Plant disease management in this production system needs to be integrated and multifaceted in order to be effective. Such disease management tactics should be adaptable to small farm production environment and should be tailored to long-term farm sustainability. Among strategies for mitigating diseases and epidemics is incorporation of cover crops in rotations to break disease cycles (Baldwin & Creamer, 2006). Silver colored plastic mulch effectively does this and will reduce thrips (Kelley, 2009). Biofungicides and organic mulches such as spent mushroom compost are known to reduce diseases and enhance plant growth www.ccsenet.org/jas
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