Introduction to Soil Disinfection

Importance of Soil Disinfection

Soil disinfection is an essential and multifaceted practice in agricultural management, especially within intensive production systems, where controlling soil-borne pathogens is crucial to ensuring the health and productivity of horticultural crops. These crops, due to their susceptibility to a wide range of soil-borne diseases, rely heavily on effective disinfection strategies to maintain their long-term viability.

Traditional Disinfection Methods

Chemical Disinfection

  • Widespread Use of Chemicals: Chemicals, such as fumigants, have been widely used due to their ability to eliminate a wide range of pathogens and their proven effectiveness.
  • Negative Impacts: Over-reliance on these products has led to their prohibition in many cases, due to the adverse effects they have on the environment, human health, and soil biodiversity.

Consequences of Continuous Use

  • Accumulation of Toxic Waste: The repeated use of chemical disinfectants has led to a buildup of toxic residues in the soil, affecting not only the target pathogens but also beneficial soil organisms.
  • Prohibitions and Restrictions: As a result of these concerns, government regulations have imposed restrictions and bans on the use of certain chemical disinfectants, forcing farmers to seek more sustainable alternatives.

Challenges and Adaptations in Soil Disinfection

Adaptation of Management Strategies

  • Challenges for Farmers: These prohibitions and restrictions represent a considerable challenge for farmers, who must adapt to new regulations and develop innovative management strategies.
  • Innovation Opportunities: The need for adaptation has also driven a wave of research and development in the field of soil disinfection, with the goal of finding solutions that are both effective and environmentally sustainable.

Sustainable Alternatives

1. Solarization

  • Method and Effectiveness: Solarization involves covering the soil with transparent plastic sheets during the warmest periods of the year, harnessing solar radiation to raise soil temperatures to levels that are lethal to many pathogens.
  • Combined Application: This method can be applied alone or in combination with other pathogen control methods to improve its effectiveness.

2. Biofumigants

  • Definition and Use: Biofumigants are natural substances derived from plants that can release volatile compounds toxic to soil-borne pathogens.
  • Advantages: These compounds, in addition to being effective against pathogens, have the advantage of decomposing quickly without leaving harmful residues.

3. Deficiency Preventers

Use of Products such as SPIRALIS Eco Long Life o CULTISAN

  • Definition and FunctionSpiralis is an example of a deficiency prevention product, designed to strengthen plants and improve their resistance to pathogens.
  • Additional benefitsThese products not only help prevent soil-borne diseases, but also improve overall plant health by increasing their ability to absorb nutrients and resist environmental stress.
  • Integration into Management Strategies: Incorporating deficiency preventers such as Spiralis into agricultural management can complement other disinfection methods and contribute to a more comprehensive and effective pathogen control strategy.

4. Biological Control

  • Beneficial Microorganisms: Biological control using beneficial microorganisms, such as antagonistic bacteria and fungi, offers a promising solution. Example:  MICROVITAL-L
  • Mechanism of action: These microorganisms can inhibit or displace soil pathogens, promoting a healthy microbial balance and improving soil resilience to disease.

5. Organic Amendments

  • Types of Amendments: Incorporation organic amendments, improves soil structure.
  • Benefits: They increase the soil's ability to suppress pathogens by activating the soil microbiota.

6. Crop Rotation

  • Strategy and Benefits: Crop rotation involves alternating different types of crops on the same plot to disrupt the life cycles of pathogens specific to certain crops.
  • Soil Health Improvements: This practice not only helps reduce the incidence of soil-borne diseases, but also improves soil fertility and overall soil health.

Importance of Innovation

  • Future Challenges: Soil disinfection is an essential practice in intensive agriculture, especially in horticultural crops.
  • Sustainable Solutions: The ban and restriction of certain chemical disinfectants has forced farmers to seek and adopt new, more sustainable strategies for controlling soil pathogens.

 

 

JOINT ACTION

 

OXIFORT y CULTISOL is proposed as a Clean and healthy floor disinfection solution, residue-free, environmentally friendly, and non-toxic and non-corrosive.

The synergy between both products contributes to increasing their disinfectant action., increasing the power of both by forming organic peroxyacids, with greater oxidizing and disinfecting power, which It guarantees the elimination of soil pathogens without having to resort to fumigants, pollutants, corrosives and very high costs..

 

APPLICATION

The application of both products can be done in conjunction with solarization, applying first OXIFORT and then CULTISOL, ending with a brief irrigation to ensure the infiltration of the products into the first few centimetres of the soil so that they fulfil their disinfectant function.

In view of the results obtained in the soil analyses carried out with the laboratory Labcolor by COEXPHAL, before and after solarization, we can say that the joint treatment strategy of OXIFORT + CULTISOL has been effective in controlling Fusarium oxysporum y Fusarium solani.

Therefore, for a greater effectiveness of the treatment and due to the high permanence and survival of Fusarium y Pythium on the ground, greenhouse structures, tools and machines, the following are also recommended prevention measures:

remove or destroy crop residues, choose resistant crops or varieties, use clean and disinfected propagation/planting tools and materials, use clean substrates, prevent plant stress, control greenhouse temperature, do not overwater and ensure adequate soil drainage, control nitrogen applications (preferably nitric than ammoniacal), improve the healing of pruning and/or harvest wounds and prevent plant diseases, optimizing plant potential as well as crop resilience.