Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD), as a bio-fumigation technology, has been developed to control soil-borne pests. There is increasing evidence showing that carbon sources and cover tarps play an important role in the ASD suppression of soil-borne pests, but little is known about the effect of composted chicken manure (CCM) and totally impermeable films (TIF) against soil-borne pests in the strawberry production system. In experiments, the colonies of Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp., which are recognized to cause strawberry soil-borne diseases, decreased significantly after ASD. The soil promoted a significant increase in ammonium nitrogen, nitrate-nitrogen and organic matter, but a decrease in oxidation-reduction potential after ASD. Besides, the strawberry plant height, stem thickness and yield were significantly higher than in the non-amended soil. Compared to the untreated control, ASD, both at 6 and 12 ton/ha of CCM, significantly (p = 0.05) increased strawberry marketable yield and income. The economic benefit could be due to the suppression of soil-borne diseases and the improvement of soil nutrition. The soil bacterial and fungal diversity and richness increased after soil fumigation. The increased presence of biological control agents led to the suppression of soil-borne pathogens. In summary, ASD with CCM amendments could be applied in pre-plant fumigation to control strawberry soil-borne pests, strengthen soil fertility, improve crop yield and increase growers’ income.

Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) is widely used to control soilborne diseases in organic crop production. The effect of ASD used different sealed films on soilborne pathogens and strawberry growth was evaluated in two laboratory studies and two field trials. Under maltose as carbon sources, 28 °C temperature and 30% of soil moisture optimal conditions ASD decreased Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp. by 100%. ASD used maltose as an organic amendment and sealed with totally impermeable film (TIF) obtained the highest suppression (>96%) against Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp. (>91%). According to the laboratory results, the efficacy of ASD utilizing 6 or 9 t/ha maltose and sealing with TIF was evaluated and compared with reference treatment with chloropicrin (Pic) or solarization (Sol) in the field trials. Compared with the untreated soil, ASD treatments greatly reduced the pathogenic population of Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp., and successfully controlled the damage of fusarium wilt with evidence of lower mortality (6%). ASD significantly increased soil nutrition promoted plant growth and increased strawberry yield, which was similar as the Pic, but better than Sol treatment. The analyzed fungal and bacterial microbiota did not show significant differences in the taxonomic richness and diversity between the compared treatments. Nevertheless, the abundance of some bacterial and fungal taxa tended to change between treated. The evidence showed that adding maltose and sealing TIF for ASD has the potential to replace Pic for pathogen control in commercial strawberry production.

Pythium spp. are soil-borne pathogens that cause damping-off and root rot diseases in many plant species such as cucumber. In the current study, the effect of dried roots–stems and leaves of Ageratina adenophora (Sprengel) R. King and H. Robinson (=Eupatorium adenophorum Sprengel) alone and in combination with pyrogenic biomass biochar to control Pythium aphanidermatum (Edson) Fitz was assessed. In four treatments of leaves, roots–stems, leaves + biochar, and roots–stems + biochar, it was observed that the treatment with leaves at an E_max (maximal effective concentration on control fungi) of 79 g/kg of soil had the most antifungal effect on P. aphanidermatum. Also, the C_max (the highest level of control) increased with time and reached 82.4% and 71% on days 30 and 60, respectively. The highest cucumber fresh fruit weight and the highest height of the stems in the greenhouse were observed in leaf treatment of A. adenophora. Biochar did not have any remarkable controlling effect on P. aphanidermatum, and its population increased. The main compounds extracted from the dried leaves and roots–stems of A. adenophora, including α-pinene, nonanone, hexahydronaphthalene, 3-undecanone, muurolene, and heneicosane, had antifungal properties. We concluded that the leaves of A. adenophora have the potential to be used as a bio-fumigant for P. aphanidermatum management.