RESEARCH ARTICLE
Combined Influence of Chitosan and Calcium Chloride on Fusarium Dry Rot Disease Under Field Conditions
Sabah R. Mohammed1, 2, Ivan D. Eskov1, Elsayed M. Zeitar1, 2, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2020Volume: 14
First Page: 339
Last Page: 344
Publisher ID: TOASJ-14-339
DOI: 10.2174/1874331502014010339
Article History:
Received Date: 10/07/2020Revision Received Date: 28/09/2020
Acceptance Date: 29/10/2020
Electronic publication date: 23/12/2020
Collection year: 2020
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Fusarium dry rot disease caused by Fusarium sambucinum Fuckel (F. sambucinum) can infect the potato tubers in the field and during storage. Yield losses by F. sambucinum reach 60%. Traditional methods to control Fusarium dry rot are fungicides application, which led to developing many isolates resistant to these fungicides.
Objective:
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of calcium chloride (CaCl2) and chitosan, alone or in combination, on plant development, tuber yield, and Fusarium dry rot disease incidence under field conditions.
Methods:
Soil inoculated with F. sambucinum before planting. We treated the seed tubers with CaCl2 (0.5 or 1%), chitosan 0.5%, or both. The foliage was sprayed twice with CaCl2 (0.5 or 1%), 0.1% chitosan, or both. During the vegetation period, growth parameters, such as germination (%), plant height (cm), and branches number per plant, were measured. At harvest, we calculated the total and the marketable number of tubers and tuber yield. In addition, during storage, we assessed the incidence of Fusarium dry rot disease on tubers.
Results:
Results revealed that combined pre-planting application with 1% CaCl2 and 0.5% chitosan with 2 hours intervals, then spraying foliar with 1% CaCl2 and 0.1% chitosan twice with ten days intervals starting at 40 days after planting resulted in: a) increasing the germination, enhancing the growth parameters such as plant height and branches number per plant; b) enhancing the marketable tuber yield by 75.2 and 97.6% in Sante and Kolobok varieties, respectively; c) reducing Fusarium dry rot disease incidence by 61.9-72.7%.
Conclusion:
The work highlighted that the combined pre-planting and foliar application of CaCl2 and chitosan might be recommended for potato producers to reduce the incidence of Fusarium dry rot disease and augment yields.
