Diseases caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib) de Bary are difficult to control and cause increasing losses of horticultural crops worldwide. Reasons of this phenomenon are various: (i) the specialization of crop production that causes the accumulation of the pathogen in the soil; (ii) the lack of a safe and efficient method of soil fumigation; (iii) the specific life cycle of S. sclerotiorum with survival structures (sclerotia), resistant to chemical and biological degradation. Sclerotinia diseases depend on many environmental factors which determine sclerotia survival and ascospores dissemination, because plants are mainly infected by air-borne ascospores from carpogenic germination of sclerotia. Due to the lack of effective synthetic agents for eradication of S. sclerortiorum from soil considerable interest has been focused on biological control, especially the selection of microorganisms with mycoparasitic activity towards S. sclerotiorum sclerotia, that can decrease their number in the soil. In this work we review reports on the use of different antagonistic fungi and bacteria in the control of S. sclerotiorum and discuss the suppressive effect of organic amendments against this soil-borne pathogen.

Vascular wilt diseases caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. are difficult to control and lead to increasing losses of many crops worldwide. It can cause disease on not only horticultural crops but also many economically important crops such vegetables, legumes, forest trees, woody and herbaceous plants. Reasons of this situation are various: (i) the specialization of crop production resulted in the accumulation of the pathogen in the soil, especially monoculture production; (ii) the lack of an efficient and safe soil fumigation method; (iii) the production in large amounts of survival structures—microslerotia and melanized hyphae that are resistant to chemical and biological degradation.Due to the lack of effective synthetic agents for eradication of V. dahliae from soil, considerable interest in this paper has been focused on biological control, especially the selection of microorganisms with mycoparasitic activity towards V. dahliae microsclerotia, that can decrease their number in soil. The main attention is paid on the Trichoderma fungi, non pathogenic Fusarium spp., Talaromyces flavus and bacteria Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Streptomyces spp. that are discussed in this review. In this work the suppressive effect of organic amendments against this soil-borne pathogen is also mentioned. In addition biofumigation using toxic plant materials, which is an approach to the soil-borne pathogen management could be an effective method to control diseases caused by V. dahliae.

Introduction: Increased consumer awareness of the health aspects of the diet has influenced the increased consumption of fruit and vegetables. Due to the fact that these products are mainly consumed raw and are usually not subjected to processes that reduce their microbiological contamination,...