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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #99994
Title: BIOLOGICAL DISEASE CONTROL: CONSIDERATIONS FOR SEED TREATMENT AND STAND ESTABLISHMENT

Author
item Roberts, Daniel
item STROMBERG, ERIK - VPI, BLACKSBURG, VA
item LACY, GEORGE - VPI, BLACKSBURG, VA
item Buyer, Jeffrey

Submitted to: Acta Horticulture Proceedings
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/10/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: N.A.

Technical Abstract: Biological control for managing plant pathogens may allow reductions in fungicide use, maintain biological balance and diversity, promote sustainable long-term production practices, and achieve better disease control than current non-biological control methods. One approach, directed against soil borne pathogens, is the delivery of bacterial and fungal biological disease control agents as seed treatments for stand establishment. Effects of bacterial seed treatments on take-all of wheat (Triticum aestivum), caused by Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici, and damping-off of cucumber (Cucumis sativum), caused by Pythium ultimum, will be discussed. Special emphasis is placed on strategies for isolation and identification of bacterial biological control agents from apparently healthy wheat plants from a field that has been continually cropped to wheat since 1988 and has had severe take-all outbreaks since 1992. We examine the delivery and colonization of the spermosphere and rhizosphere of wheat and cucumber for disease suppression by strains of biological control bacteria. Current research is directed toward evaluating bacterial isolates alone or in various combinations as seed treatments for take-all control under field conditions.