Biofumigation Experiences in Argentina : Short Report

Abstract

Biofumigation experiences in Argentina have been held along a wide territory, and have proved to be much more effective when combined with solarization. These practices have been successfully implemented, allowing the disinfection of soils in a sustainable manner and the improvement of their physical, chemical and biological properties. In Corrientes a subtropical province specialized in off season production, incorporation of chicken and cattle manure into the greenhouse soil prior to solarization was effective against Ralstonia solanacearum, Pythium aphanidermatum, Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium rolfsii, other biofumigants essayed were pine tree fallen leaves, grass, cabbage and sorghum. In the centre of Argentina, horticultural and ornamental crops are grown under mild winter climate. Biosolarization (biofumigation + solarization) was effective controlling Pyrenochaeta lycopersici, Fusarium solani, Sclerotium rolfsii and Sclerotinia sclero tiorum, weeds and damping off pathogens, as well as nematodes like Nacobbus aberrans, Helycotylenchus and Criconemella. The amendments used were chicken manure, broccoli, sorghum, tomato and pepper crop debris, mustard, rapeseed and Brassica campestris. At the west of the country, in Mendoza a province with arid and continental weather, summer is hot, and good control of strawberry diseases as Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia, Phytium, Verticilium, Macrophomina, and nematodes as Meloidogyne, Ditylenchus has been achieved using rapeseed as fumigant in the greenhouse. In Bahía Blanca, a city at the south of Buenos Aires province with a colder weather Meloidogyne hapla was controlled using cattle manure and cauliflower in spring and summer in the greenhouse, nematode s of the same genus were controlled in winter using Melia azedarach seeds as fumigant. At the North of Patagonia, a semiarid region with hot summers but very cold winters, weeds in onion open field nurseries were controlled in summer using chicken manure and cabbage. Similar results were obtained at the northwest of Rio Negro province, were weeds were controlled using cabbage in spring for open field tomato crops. In the same province Fusarium oxysporum in onion was controlled using cabbage in autumn and summer.