VIEW ARTICLE

Disease Control and Pest Management

Biological Control of Cucumber Black Root Rot by Gliocladium roseum. Arnold R. Moody, Plant Pathology Section, Changins Federal Agricultural Research Station, CH-1260 Nyon, Switzerland, Present address of senior author: Virginia State College, Petersburg, VA 23803; Daniel Gindrat, Plant Pathology Section, Changins Federal Agricultural Research Station, CH-1260 Nyon, Switzerland. Phytopathology 67:1159-1162. Accepted for publication 10 March 1977. Copyright © 1977 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-67-1159.

When a black, highly organic soil was artificially infested with Phomopsis sclerotioides, the disease potential was consistently lower than that of a check soil infested with the same amount of P. sclerotioides. This antagonism to P. sclerotioides was destroyed by steam-air pasteurization at 60 C for 30 min. When mycelial mats of P. sclerotioides were buried in the antagonistic soil, Gliocladium roseum grew profusely on the surface of the mats. Gliocladium roseum was isolated from the mycelial mats and inoculum was prepared which consisted of 5-day-old actively growing cultures in a mixture of peat, soil, and nutrients. When G. roseum was added to an infested mineral soil, the disease potential was significantly lowered. An inoculum of conifer bark pellets containing mycelium and conidia of G. roseum and a nutrient source also was used. Its efficacy in soil did not last as long as that of the other inoculum.