Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Fruits: small fruit

• Vegetables: cucurbits, eggplant, okra, tomatoes

Target Pests

• Target Pests: bacterial diseases, black root rot, other

Practices

• Pest Management: biofumigation, biological control, biorational pesticides, competition

• Natural Resources/Environment: soil stabilization

• Production Systems: organic agriculture, transitioning to organic

• Soil Management: soil microbiology, soil quality/health

Soil-borne fungal and bacterial pathogens cause significant losses to fruits and vegetables by inciting root problems including vascular wilt diseases. Recent surveys indicated that the problem is on the rise in the Northeast U.S. on high value crops such as tomatoes and strawberries. General recommendations for managing soil-borne pathogens are to rotate fields or fumigate soil with mostly synthetic fumigants. However, organic growers cannot use synthetic fumigants, and small conventional growers are not equipped for complicated application methods or obstructed by new regulations. Similarly, unavailability of suitable land areas to rotate warrants developing a multi-tactics-based integrated pest management (IPM) method for biorational management of these notorious soil-borne pathogens. Our research and on-farm trials for last few years with multiple treatment options was able to identify the best combination {(seedling production on probiotic bacteria treated media followed by planting in anaerobically disinfested soil (ASD)} treatment that provided highest efficacy in managing soil-borne diseases in multiple crops. Although economic analysis showed highest net benefit for this treatment option compared to other treatments and non-treated, adoption by growers faced obstacles due to high price of the ingredient used for ASD. While mustard meal products are not too expensive, delivery cost is very high to make these options a little costly for growers as local suppliers do not carry these products. It is a critical need to explore similar but less expensive carbon (C) source that can produce comparable result to promote adoption of this technology by growers. Efficacy of combination treatment involving less expensive locally sourced C biomass with probiotic bacteria will be determined and complemented with outreach activities to promote adoption by growers. Our work through this proposal will also help unraveling the mechanism involved with suppression of soil-borne pathogens and enhancement of yield and quality in fruits and vegetables.

1. Evaluate the efficacy of three different carbon sources (grape pomace, bio char and rice bran) through on-farm trial in grower cooperators' field for anaerobic soil disinfestation and compare the result with mustard meal.
2. Conduct an economic analysis to determine cost and benefit ratio for these C source use from soil health indicators and marketable fruit yield.
3. Unravel the mechanism and microbiome associated with disease suppression by conducting metagenomic analysis from soil samples of each treatment.
4. Analyze fruit quality parameters as influenced by the use of probiotic bacteria.
5. Disseminate the technology to organic growers and small farmers, and county-based extension staff through individual communication, grower meetings and conferences, annual field day events, newsletters and cooperative county extension programming.