ISHS Acta Horticulturae 487: VI International Symposium on Processing Tomato & Workshop on Irrigation & Fertigation of Processing Tomato
USE OF ROWCOVERS, FUMIGATION AND ORGANIC FERTILISATION TO CONTROL CUCUMBER MOSAIC VIRUS AND CORKY ROOT ON TOMATO |
| Authors: | R. D'Amore, A. Oliva, P. Iovieno, E. Lahoz, F. Piro, V. Magnifico |
| Keywords: | Processing tomato, Cucumber Mosaic Virus, Pyrenochaeta lycopersici, rowcovers, soil fumigation, organic amendment |
| Abstract:
Crops of processing tomato in Campania (southern Italy) have incurred heavy losses because of the diffusion both of the corky root disease (CR) and of the Cucumber Mosaic Virus (CMV). The combinations of three soil treatments (fumigation, organic fertilisation, untreated) by two crop cover levels (temporary rowcovers, no cover) were tested in 1996 and 1997 at two planting dates, in order to verify the possibility of reducing disease damages and improving yield. The early planting date experiment also included two irrigation levels (100% and 70% restitution of evapotranspiration). Soil fumigation was done with methyl bromide (60 g m-2), organic fertilisation with an earthworm compost (61 MT ha-1), and rowcovers with low tunnels of non-woven polyester fabric (PET). A complete randomized block design with three replications was applied, with a split plot arrangement for the irrigation factor. The cultivar was ‘Hypeel 244’. Neither fumigation nor rowcovers were wholly successful in producing pathogen-free conditions. In the early planting experiment both fumigation and rowcover increased yield and decreased the amount of defective fruits, showing a positive interaction. Besides cutting down the level of CMV infection, cover also reduced CR symptoms. Yield enhancement by cover was only partially accounted for by lower disease indices and pointed out to overall favourable conditions for plant growth. Only without rowcovers in the early planting experiment and to a lesser extent with rowcovers in the late planting experiment was the regression of yield on CR and CMV indices significant. In the late planting experiment both fumigation and cover increased yield and fruit weight, but only fumigation decreased defective fruit percentage. The effect of organic fertilisation on corky root index or yield was hardly noticeable. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
