Authors: David M Butler Nancy KokalisBurelle Joseph P Albano T Greg McCollum Joji Muramoto Carol Shennan Erin N Rosskopf
Publish Date: 2014/02/01
Volume: 378, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 365-381
Abstract
Soil treatment by anaerobic soil disinfestation ASD combined with soil solarization can effectively control soilborne plant pathogens and plantparasitic nematodes in specialty crop production systems At the same time research is limited on the impact of soil treatment by ASD + solarization on soil fertility crop performance and plant nutrition Our objectives were to evaluate the response of 1 soil nutrients and 2 vegetable crop performance to ASD + solarization with differing levels of irrigation molasses amendment and partiallycomposted poultry litter amendment CPL compared to an untreated control and a methyl bromide MeBr + chloropicrinfumigated controlA 2year field study was established in 2008 at the USDAARS US Horticultural Research Lab in Fort Pierce Florida USA to determine the effectiveness of ASD as an alternative to MeBr fumigation for a bell pepper Capsicum annum Leggplant Solanum melongena L double crop system A complete factorial combination of treatments in a splitsplit plot was established to evaluate three levels of initial irrigation 10 5 or 0 cm two levels of CPL amended or unamended and two levels of molasses amended or unamended in combination with solarization Untreated and MeBr controls were established for comparison to ASD treatmentsResults suggest that ASD treatment using molasses as the carbon source paired with solarization can be an effective strategy to maintain crop yields in the absence of soil fumigants For both bell pepper and eggplant crops ASD treatments with molasses as the carbon source had equivalent or greater marketable yields than the MeBr control The application of organic amendments in ASD treatment molasses or molasses + CPL caused differences in soil nutrients and plant nutrition compared to the MeBr control that must be effectively managed in order to implement ASD on a commercial scale as a MeBr replacementThe authors wish to thank Kate Rotindo Melissa Edgerly Bernardette Stange Amanda Rinehart John Mulvaney Jackie Markle Randy Driggers Gene Swearingen Don Beauchaine Steve Mayo Veronica Abel William Crawford James Salvatore Wayne Brown Chris Lasser and Pragna Patel for their assistance with the field and laboratory work Funding for a portion of this work was provided by the USDANIFA Methyl Bromide Transitions Grant Agreements 20075110203854 and 20105110221707 The authors wish to thank Seminis Vegetable Seeds Inc Saint Louis Missouri USA for the donation of vegetable seeds and Johnson Plants Inc Immokalee FL USA for assistance with transplant production
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