Effect of Compost on Tomato Growth and Productivity and Induction of Systemic Resistance Against Tomato Crown and Root Rot Disease Under Protected Agriculture Conditions Along the Syrian Cost

Abstract

This study was conducted to biologically control tomato crown and root rot disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici (FORL). Two types of compost (citrus pruning residue compost C and olive pruning residue compost O) supplemented with biocontrol agents were used in this study to test their efficacy in controlling the disease under artificial infection conditions in a plastic greenhouse. The experiment was conducted in Lattakia Governorate, Syria, where compost was added to the soil at a rate of 20% (vol/vol). The results showed that both types of compost treatments alone did not have a significant effect in reducing the infection with tomato Fusarium crown and root rot disease, but their effect was significant when adding antagonistic factors to the treatments. Adding the isolate FZB27 of Bacillus subtilis to the two types of compost or soil improved its efficiency in reducing the infection with the pathogenic fungus FORL, and its addition to olive compost was the most effective in reducing the severity of infection with the pathogenic fungus FORL, which reached 38.28%, and this was accompanied by the highest level of peroxidase enzyme activity, that reached 0.93 and 12.39 micromole/mg, 15 and 30 days after infection with the pathogenic fungus FORL, respectively. Plants treated with olive compost significantly outperformed the rest of the experimental treatments in terms of fresh shoot weight, which reached 1050.98 g/plant, and the fresh root weight which reached 35.03 g/plant. Meanwhile, tomato productivity reached 2.52 kg/plant.

Keywords:

Compost, tomato crown and root rot disease, induced systemic resistance, peroxidase enzyme, biocontrol agents.