Factors Associated with Foliar Disease of Staked Fresh Market Tomatoes Grown Under Differing Bed Strategies

Abstract

The use of mulch or compost to reduce foliar disease in fresh market tomato could reduce fungicide use. Between 1997 and 1999, foliar disease was monitored in tomatoes grown in beds with bare soil, black polyethylene, composted dairy manure, or hairy vetch. Early blight was reduced in plots with vetch compared with bare soil or compost in all years and compared with polyethylene cover in 1 year. Early blight was reduced in plots with polyethylene versus compost and bare soil in 1 and 2 years, respectively. Septoria leaf spot was reduced in plots with vetch versus other bed strategies in 1998 and bare soil or compost in 1999. This disease was reduced in plots with polyethylene versus bare soil or compost in 1998 and 1999. Soil coverage of tomato leaflets and soil particle dispersal were reduced in plots with polyethylene or vetch versus bare soil or compost in both years that these variables were assessed. Sensor wetness duration was reduced in plots with polyethylene or vetch versus bare soil or compost in one of two years. These findings suggest that foliar disease reduction in mulch was associated with reduced splash dispersal and, in one year, reduced leaf wetness.

Plant species diversity for sustainable management of crop pests and diseases in agroecosystems: a review

“…Trudan 8) cover crop was shown to reduce the splash dispersal of conidia of Colletotrichum acutatum Simmonds, the causal agent of anthracnose of strawberry (Ntahimpera et al 1998). Mills et al (2002) found that a decrease in tomato foliar diseases (early blight caused by A. solani, and Septoria leaf spot, caused by Septoria lycopersici) in a dead mulch of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa) was associated with reduced splash dispersal.…”

An alternative agriculture system is defined by a distinct expression profile of select gene transcripts and proteins

“…In very high chemical input systems, such as fresh market tomato production (4), the use of legume cover crops offers advantages as a biological alternative to commercial fertilizer (5) that reduces soil erosion and loss of nutrients (6), enhances water infiltration, reduces runoff, and creates a ''natural'' pestpredator relationship (7). An important economical outcome of legume cover crop use has been the stemming of disease incidence or severity in diverse crops (ref.…”

Sustainable Agriculture—Enhancing Environmental Benefits, Food Nutritional Quality and Building Crop Resilience to Abiotic and Biotic Stresses

“…Up-regulated genes included the most abundant chloroplast protein, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco), important for carbon fixation; nitrogen-responsive glutamine synthase, regulating carbon/nitrogen signaling; nitrogen utilizing and nitrite toxicity reducing nitrite reductase; nitrogen-use efficiency protein glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase; chaperone proteins (HSP70 and ER protein BiP) that stabilize native proteins; cytokinin-and gibberellin-related regulatory proteins; and plant defense anti-fungal proteins chitinase and osmotin. Up-regulation of these plant defense genes may contribute to disease resistance as, in these and other field experiments, hairy vetch-grown tomato had less disease than tomato grown under black plastic [52,53,55].…”

“…It was thought that more complete coverage of the soil surface with the hairy vetch mulch (hairy vetch mulch covers the entire field while black plastic covers the tomato beds but not the interspaced rows) physically obstructed splashed soil near the soil surface preventing soil infested with pathogen inoculum from entering the tomato canopy. The tomato crop grown in the hairy vetch mulch had negligible loss to early blight in the absence of fungicide relative to the fungicide treated controls [52,53]. There was also greater resistance of the tomato crop grown in the hairy vetch mulch to invasion and damage by the Colorado potato beetle [54].…”

“…As with the no-till small grains production system discussed above, better weed control may result from cover crop mixtures where the hairy vetch is mixed with cereal rye or another cover crop that provides more biomass for a weed-suppressive mulch and decomposes more slowly than hairy vetch. The hairy vetch system did, however, reduce disease on tomato due to Alternaria solani, the causal agent of tomato early blight [52,53]. Infective propagules of this fungal pathogen in soil are spread by splash dissemination of infested soil into the tomato canopy.…”