Biological control of postharvest diseases of fruits and vegetables : workshop proceedings, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, September 12-14, 1990 /

Abstract

Epiphytic microflora are ubiquitous. Much effort is devoted to finding antagonists among the microflora to use as biological control agents for plant disease. Although research results are encouraging, most attempts to obtain satisfactory control under field conditions are variable. Levels of control are usually low. We suggest reorienting research and putting emphasis on microbial ecology. We need to do biological control research without promising biological control. Research on the characterization of bacterial microflora associated with peanut foliage documents the diversity of genera present (Elliott and Spurr, 1990). Seventy percent of 300 isolates identified showed the following genera by percent of occurrence: