The Effect on Substrate Silica Incorporation on Post-germination Damping Off of Vinca

Abstract

<jats:p>Vinca (<jats:italic>Catharanthus roseus</jats:italic>) is a common annual bedding plant species that is susceptible to root and stem rot caused by <jats:italic>Phytophthora nicotianae</jats:italic>. The experimental design was a 6×2×1 factorial with a total of 12 treatment combinations that had five replications and was repeated twice. Vinca seeds were planted in the middle nine plugs of a 5×5 five-milliliter round plug tray filled with sphagnum peat (control) or peat amended with 2.1 kg/m<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> calcitic lime, 5.9 and 7.3 kg/m<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> potassium silicate alone and combined with 3.0 kg/m<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> calcium sulfate. A peat control drenched with metalaxyl after inoculation was also included. After germination, when the seedlings had one true leaf, half of the treatments were inoculated with 500 cfu of <jats:italic>Phytophthora nicotianae</jats:italic> per plug cell while the other half remained uninoculated. The percentage of germination for the potassium silicate combined with calcium sulfate (KSCS) (79% and 78%) was similar to the control (86%) and the metalaxyl treatment (83%), whereas the potassium silicate alone had poorer germination (69% and 71%) and plant growth. The percentage of mortality for the KSCS treatment (6% and 14%) was similar to the metalaxyl treatment (9%) but was significantly less than the control (100%). The average dry shoot and root weights for the KSCS treatments (4.4 and 4.9 mg; 2.7 and 2.2 mg) were similar to the metalaxyl treatment (5.0 and 3.6 mg) and the uninoculated control (5.0 and 3.2 mg), but were higher than the potassium silicate treatment alone (2.1 and 1.6 mg; 0.7 and 0.6 mg).</jats:p>