Abstract
Essential oils are gaining interest as environmentally friendly alternatives to synthetic fungicides for management of seedborne pathogens. Here, seven essential oils were initially tested in vivo for disinfection of squash seeds (Cucurbita maxima) naturally contaminated by Stagonosporopsis cucurbitacearum, Alternaria alternata, Fusarium fujikuro, Fusarium solani, Paramyrothecium roridum, Albifimbria verrucaria, Curvularia spicifera, and Rhizopus stolonifer. The seeds were treated with essential oils from Cymbopogon citratus, Lavandula dentata, Lavandula hybrida, Melaleuca alternifolia, Laurus nobilis, and Origanum majorana (#1 and #2). Incidence of S. cucurbitacearum was reduced, representing a range between 67.0% in L. nobilis to 84.4% in O. majorana #2. Treatments at 0.5 mg/mL essential oils did not affect seed germination, although radicles were shorter than controls, except with C. citratus and O. majorana #1 essential oils. Four days after seeding, seedling emergence was 20%, 30%, and 10% for control seeds and seeds treated with C. citratus essential oil (0.5 mg/mL) and fungicides (25 g/L difenoconazole plus 25 g/L fludioxonil). S. cucurbitacearum incidence was reduced by ~40% for plantlets from seeds treated with C. citratus essential oil. These data show the effectiveness of this essential oil to control the transmission of S. cucurbitacearum from seeds to plantlets, and thus define their potential use for seed decontamination in integrated pest management and organic agriculture.
Highlights
Disease management is one of the biggest challenges for quantity and quality of crop production
We investigated whether the treatment of seeds with C. citratus essential oil can control the transmission of S. cucurbitacearum from seeds to plantlets
The results show that these essential oils significantly reduced the incidence of infected seeds relative to the negative controls (Figure 1)
Summary
Disease management is one of the biggest challenges for quantity and quality of crop production. Cucurbitae), Alternaria leaf spot (caused by Alternaria alternata, Alternaria cucumerina) [1,2,3,4], and bacterial spot of pumpkin (caused by Xanthomonas cucurbitae) [5], along with viral diseases, including squash mosaic virus [6]. All of these pathogens that are responsible for the main diseases on cucurbits can be carried on seeds. Seedborne pathogens can limit the production of many crops and can result in severe economic losses to growers [10,11,12,13]
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