Abstract
The significant problems caused by soilborne pathogens in crop production worldwide include reduced crop performance, decreased yield, and higher production costs. In many parts of the world, methyl bromide was extensively used to control these pathogens before the implementation of the Montreal Protocol—a global agreement to protect the ozone layer. The threats of soilborne disease epidemics in crop production, high cost of chemical fungicides and development of fungicide resistance, climate change, new disease outbreaks and increasing concerns regarding environmental as well as soil health are becoming increasingly evident. These necessitate the use of integrated soilborne disease management strategies for crop production. This article summarizes methods for management of soilborne diseases in crop production which includes the use of sanitation, legal methods, resistant cultivars/varieties and grafting, cropping system, soil solarization, biofumigants, soil amendments, anaerobic soil disinfestation, soil steam sterilization, soil fertility and plant nutrients, soilless culture, chemical control and biological control in a system-based approach. Different methods with their strengths and weaknesses, mode of action and interactions are discussed, concluding with a brief outline of future directions which might lead to the integration of described methods in a system-based approach for more effective management of soilborne diseases.
Highlights
Soilborne diseases are considered a major limitation to crop production. Soilborne plant pathogens such as Rhizoctonia spp., Fusarium spp., Verticillium spp., Sclerotinia spp., Pythium spp., and Phytophthora spp. can cause 50%–75% yield loss for many crops such as wheat, cotton, maize, vegetables, fruit and ornamentals as reported to date [1,2,3]
Auger and his colleagues reported that the use of crushed Allium spp. containing thiosulfinates and disulfides have the same spectrum of pesticidal activity as methyl bromide [67], which could be used in agriculture as an effective integrated disease-management tool [68]
As Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) has already proved to be effective against many soilborne plant pathogens, this technique could be a very useful method for the growers to manage the soilborne diseases while improving the soil conditions
Summary
Soilborne diseases are considered a major limitation to crop production. Soilborne plant pathogens such as Rhizoctonia spp., Fusarium spp., Verticillium spp., Sclerotinia spp., Pythium spp., and Phytophthora spp. can cause 50%–75% yield loss for many crops such as wheat, cotton, maize, vegetables, fruit and ornamentals as reported to date [1,2,3]. Accurate diagnosis of a particular disease is difficult due to the similarity in symptoms such as seedling damping-off, root blackening, root rot, stunting, wilting, yellowing, bark cracking and twig or branch dieback which in turn makes the disease harder to manage [5] To control these disease outbreaks, conventional synthetic chemical fungicides and fumigants need to be applied at regular intervals throughout the growing season of the crop. Some environment-friendly approaches such as the use of crop rotation, soil solarization, anaerobic soil disinfestation, soil steam sterilization, biofumigants, resistant cultivars/varieties or grafted plants and biocontrol products have been developed to control soilborne diseases while maintaining the environment. This review paper seeks to summarize the current methodology used for management of soilborne diseases including sanitation, legal methods, resistant cultivars/varieties and grafting, cropping system, soil solarization, biofumigants, soil amendments, anaerobic soil disinfestation, soil steam sterilization, soil fertility and plant nutrients, soilless culture, chemical control and biological control in a system based approach
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