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Soil Fungistasis: Mechanism in Sterilized, Reinoculated Soil. G. W. Steiner, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823, Present address of senior author: Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822; J. L. Lockwood, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823. Phytopathology 60:89-91. Accepted for publication 4 August 1969. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-60-89.

Germination, in aqueous extracts of sterilized soil made fungistatic by reinoculation with various microorganisms, was high for spores which require no exogenous nutrients, and low for spores requiring exogenous nutrients. Chloroform-methanol extracts of reinoculated soils contained no detectable fungistatic activity. Increase in fungistasis in sterilized subsoil, which was amended with glucose and reinoculated, was correlated with loss of glucose. The results support the nutrient deficiency hypothesis for soil fungistasis.