Solar heating of soil for control of damping-off disease.  F. Y. Kassaby.  January 1985.  13 pp. (unpubl.)

SUMMARY

Solar heating (45-52°C) moist soil under 50 µm thick clear plastic sheeting during summer (Jan.- Feb.), 15 days prior to sowing, significantly reduced pre-emergence damping-off disease of Pinus radiata D. Don (radiata pine) and Eucalyptus obliqua L'Hérit. (messmate stringybark) seeds and also post-emergence mortality among P. radiata seedlings.

Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands (phytophthora root rot), Fusarium oxysporum Snyder and Hansen and Pythium sp. (damping-off disease) could not be re-isolated from the roots of artificially inoculated pine seedlings after exposure to the solar heating treatment. Natural P. cinnamomi inoculum was also undetectable in solar-heated soil for up to 16 months following treatment, though Pythium inoculum was detected at low levels. The treatment also controlled 11 weed species. Solar heating a potting mixture temporarily suppressed disease incidence in nursery stock, possibly due to an increase in antagonistic micro-organisms.

Solar heating moist soil appears to be particularly attractive in forest nursery practice, as it provides a simple, effective, non-toxic and non-polluting technique for the control of soil-borne diseases and of weed species.

Also published:

Kassaby, F.Y. (1985)  Solar heating soil for control of damping-off diseases.  Soil Biol. and Biochem. 17 (4): 429-34.