ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL FOR
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 3,1980—D7
Plowing reduces
veg rot diseases
BELTSVILLE, Md. -
Some vegetable growers
could benefit from putting
away the fungicides and
getting out the plow, say two
USDA scientists.
This advice came after a
three-year study m which
plant pathologists, George
Papavizas and Jack Lewis
tested several nonchemical
methods to control the pesky
fungus, Rhizoctonia. The
fungas is responsible for at
least $5 million in annual
losses to U.S. cucumber
growers, and it also an
important pathogen of
beans, radishes sugarfoeets,
tomatoes, and other crops.
The tests which compared
plowing with disking, the
scientists cut cucumber fruit
rot in half; in other tests,
they doubled the stand of
snapbean plants. In both
tests they simply turned the
soil to a depth of 8 to 10 in
ches (20 to 25 cm) before
planting.
Deep plowing was as ef
fective as two fungicides
(Difolatan and Bravo) used
in plots which were disked to
a' depth of two or three in
ches rather than plowed.
Switching to the plow might
reduce disease on other rot
susceptible vegetables such
as tomatoes, say the
scientists.
Ehizoctoma solani sur
vives on crop residues which
are disked into the surface
layer of the soil, explained
Papavizas. Disking-the
general farm practice
actually provides nutrients
for the fungus. But deep
plowing buries the crop
residues and fungus into an
unfriendly environment and
because of low oxygen and
high carbon dioxide, the
fungus pathogen is virtually
he said.
Disease control was
boosted another 20 to 25
percent in the plowed ex
perimental plots when the
researchers used two
species of soil-inhabiting
fungi that attack the
Rhizoctoma fungus.
Even in the disked plots
the two organisms, when
incorporated into the
Rhizoctoma-mfested soil,
gave as much control as
fungicides applied at two to
three tunes the recom
mended dosage, said Lewis.
Both of the effective
organisms, Corticium and a
strain of Trichoderma, were
laboratory-grown, and
preparations are not
available commercially.
They were applied into the
seed furrow in the bean plots
because Rhizoctoma attacks
the tender seedlings causing
root rot and damping-off. In
the cucumber plots, the
fungi were lightly raked into
the soil between the rows two
to three weeks after plan
ting. Cucumbers get fruit rot
by direct contact with in
fested soil.
Experiments were carried
out in silty-clay loam at the
Agricultural Research
Center in BeltsviUe, Md.,
and loamy sand on
Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Fruit rot (also called soil
rot and belly rot) is one of
the most serious diseases of
cucumbers in the
southeastern United States.
Warm, humid conditions in
the south coupled with high
density planting make an
ideal “growth chamber” for
Rhizoctania. Further, the
practice of planting the
same crop year after year
enhances the fungus’ sur
vival, thereby cutting down
on the effectiveness of
fungicides, says Lewis.
Similar conditions con
tribute to severe disease in
snapbeans (Hi Maryland’s
Eastern Shore. Farmers
there may harvest two bean
crops a year. The first crop
grown in the cooler weather
is relatively disease-free
because Rhizoctoma hasn’t
recovered from the winter
kill. But when the first crop’s
residues are disked into the
soil and the temperature and
humidity rise, the fungus
grows rapidly and “clobbers
the second planting,”
Papavizas said.
Unfortunately, plowing
may increase erosion while
burying organic matter deep
in the root zone, Lewis noted.
However, it never failed to
reduce diseases and in
crease plant stand in three
years of experimentation, he
said. “Even on sandy soil we
got three times more yield in
tiie plowed area than m the
disked areas,” he added.