SOIL SOLARIZATION IN ONION FIELDS IN EGYPT AND ISRAEL : SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS

Soil solarization is a method for soil disinfestation, implemented by increasing soil temperatures under transparent polyethylene sheets during the hot season.
Early studies indicated that solarization may control Sclerotium cepivorum (white rot disease) in onions.
In tests in Egypt, S. cepivorum was completely controlled by solarization, even in heavily infested soils.
In the second year after solarization, disease incidence in the untreated plots reached 100 %, resulting in total yield loss, while very effective long term control was still evident in the solarized plots.
In solarized plots for onion seed production flowering was earlier, seed yields were increased and Fusarium contamination was reduced, as compared with control plots.

The long-term effect of solarization on the control of pink root disease and on onion yields was studied during four successive years in Israel.
No disease symptoms were noted in the first year.
However, total and quality yields were increased by 29 % and 57 %, respectively, denoting an increased growth response phenomenon.
In the following years, disease incidence increased substantially in the untreated plots, but solarization had a long-term effect in reducing disease incidence.
Soil solarization has a great potential for increasing onion yield in the Mediterranean region.

III International Symposium on Soil Desinfestation

M.M. Satour, M.F. Abdel-Rahim, T. El-Yamani, A. Radwan, H.D. Rabinowitch, J. Katan, A. Grinstein

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1989.255.17