Abstract:
This study evaluated efficacy of 42 organic and inorganic salts as possible alternatives to synthetic fungicides for the control of Ilyonectria root rot of kiwifruit. Preliminary in vitro tests showed that ammonium bicarbonate, ammonium carbonate, potassium benzoate, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and sodium metabisulphite at 2% completely inhibited mycelial growth of the fungus. No significant differences were observed among these salts and disodium EDTA (P0.05). However, the ED50, minimum inhibition concentration (MIC), and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values indicated that sodium metabisulphite was more toxic to Ilyonectria liriodendri than these other six salts. Soil bioassays showed that sodium metabisulphite, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate at 0.25% completely inhibited mycelial growth of the fungus, whereas potassium benzoate reduced the mycelial growth of fungus by 90.30%; however, the differences in inhibitory effects were statistically insignificant (P0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference between 0.1% sodium metabisulphite and 0.5% ammonium carbonate, 0.75% ammonium bicarbonate and 1.5-2.0% disodium EDTA (P0.05). Unlike disodium EDTA, complete inhibitory was observed with ammonium carbonate andammonium bicarbonate at higher concentrations. However, in root bioassays, applications of 2% ammonium bicarbonate, 1.5% ammonium carbonate and 2% disodium EDTA were phytotoxic to kiwifruit seedlings, but 0.25% four other salts were neither phytotoxic to kiwifruit seedlings nor did it adversely affect root length, root fresh weight and root dry weight of seedling. This study also showed I.liriodendri to be capable of growth in both acidic and basic environments. However, while the fungus showed uninhibited growth at pH values of 5-11, growth decreased significantly at both higher and lower pH values (P0.05) and was completely inhibited at pH 12.