Assessment and selection of fungal antagonists against Rhizoctonia solani

The soil-borne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani Kühn (teleomorph, Thanatephorus cucumeris [A.B. Frank] Donk) is worldwide responsible for serious damage of many economically important agricultural and horticultural crops. Control of Rhizoctonia diseases is difficult because this pathogen survives for many years as sclerotia in soil or as mycelium in organic matter under numerous environmental conditions. Furthermore, the pathogen has an extremely wide host range. To date, no effective con…

Assessment and selection of fungal antagonists against Rhizoctonia solani

The soil-borne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn (teleomorph, Thanatephorus cucumeris [A. B.Frank] Donk) is worldwide responsible for serious damage of many economically important agricultural and horticultural crops. Control of Rhizoctonia diseases is difficult because this pathogen survives for many years as sclerotia in soil or as mycelium in organic matter under numerous environmental conditions. Furthermore, the pathogen has an extremely wide host range. To date, no effective control strategies against Rhizoctonia diseases are available in either organic farming or horticulture.In integrated pest management systems (IPM), mainly fungicides are used as control method.However, the European Union has decided that 60 % of the chemical pesticides that were allowed in 1996 should be banned from 2003. Hence, new strategies to control one of the most important soilborne pathogen R. solani are urgently needed. It is well-documented that an environmentally friendly alternative to protect plants against soil borne pathogens is biological control. Our work is concentrated on the development of a fungal biological control agent (BCA) especially selected against diseases caused by R. solani.