| dc.description.abstract | Soils containing sclerotia of Sclerotium rolfsii were covered with transparent plastic and exposed to sunlight in an experiment to study the effect of soil solarization on the growth of the fungi and its pathogenicity to peanut. Soil solarization for 3 to 4 weeks significantly suppressed the sclerotial germination up to 44% and reduced hyphal growth and pathogenicity ofS. rolfsiiplaced at 0.5 cm below the soil surface, but did not have any effects when the sclerotia were placed at the depth of 15 cm. Among ungerminated sclerotia, 88.0 and 82.7% of them were physically damaged by 3 and 4 weeks of soil solarization, respectively. Some of the damaged sclerotia were colonized by microorganisms. The most frequent colonizing microorganisms observed were Asergillus spp, Trichoderma spp., and bacteria. Increased soil temperature as direct effect of soil solarization and the role of some soil microbes might be responsible for the suppression. Keywords: Peanut, soil solarization, Sclerotium rol/sii, pathogenicity | id |
