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Biofungicides as alternative fumigants
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In the 2013 production season, Mark Bolda, a Farm Advisor in Strawberries and Caneberries with University of California Cooperative Extension, the United States, tested 14 different biofungicide materials in a series of strawberry trials. Bolda saw clear plant response with a few of the products, including Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (Double Nickle, Certis), Trichoderma virens (SoilGard, Certis), Bacillus subtilis (Serenade, Bayer), and Streptomyces lydicus (Actinovate, Monsanto).
Bolda followed that up in 2014 by testing this smaller list of products in soil that had been treated with anaerobic soil disinfestation, which is flooding with the addition of a carbon source. In 2015, Bolda narrowed testing down to one product which had shown the best results in his ‘14 trials, an application of Streptomyces lydicus (Actinovate), following an application of a chemical fumigant called allyl isothiocyanate (Dominus, Isagro USA). “It helped us close the gap between what we would achieve with Dominus alone and what we normally see with methyl bromide,” said Bolda.
