In planta Biological Control of Potato Brown Rot Disease in Egypt

Potato crop in Egypt occupies 20% of the total area devoted for vegetable plantations and any disturbance in its production affects severely its local and export impact. Brown rot disease on potato is the most cereous disease affecting potato exportation. Therefore, competing such disease is an obligate practice to control the pathogenic causal bacterium. Biological control became recently an effective strategy for fighting plant pathogens, where the antagonist have the ability to compete with the phytopathogens. The present study was carried out with a biocontrol bacterium and proved a potent antagonist against Ralstonia solanacearum. The in planta trials were carried out using healthy and infected tuber-seeds treated with the biocontrol agent Biocine S2HA either by soaking or powdering or both. The Biocine S2HA was produced in large-scale using controlled bioreactor to obtain the optimal amount and active Biocine S2HA agent. Treating the healthy or infected tuber-seeds prior to plantation with biocine S2HA as soaking or powdering increased the potato yield compared with the untreated tuber-seeds. However, using the treated healthy tuber-seeds was better than using the infected ones. In addition, the most effective practices were powdering the growing plants near the stem base. The effectiveness of consequence powdering treatment is due to the repeatable treatment of root area with the biocine S2HA carried on the talk powder either in the infested soil or even in the infected tuber-seeds.