Fusarium wilt of basil (FOB), caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. basilici, is an economically damaging disease of field- and greenhouse-grown sweet basil. Growers have observed a resurgence of FOB and susceptibility in FOB-resistant cultivars. Because currently available chemical, biological, and cultural control methods are costly, unsustainable, ineffective, or challenging to implement, new strategies of FOB control are needed. Cold plasma is becoming an increasingly important experimental technology in the food and agricultural industry for pathogen decontamination. To understand the effect of cold plasma treatment on FOB incidence and severity, experiments were conducted by treating FOB mycelium, inoculated sweet basil seedlings, and seeds with various experimental cold plasma treatment devices, all using helium as a feed gas. Initial results indicated that while the cold plasma jet treatment did not result in a significant reduction in mean mycelial growth rate or virulence of the pathogen, direct cold plasma jet treatments on seedlings, as well as a cold plasma dielectric barrier discharge treatment on seeds, did exhibit varying efficacies against FOB. Control of FOB appeared to be strongly dependent on the exposure time to cold plasma. These findings can aid in the standardization of a cold plasma treatment for the commercial basil seed and transplant industry.
Fusarium wilt (FOB), caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. basilici, remains an important disease of basil because of its persistence in the soil and seed transmission. Standardization of the methodology for investigating FOB resistance of basil cultivars is necessary for meaningful results. In a ‘Nufar’ seed source experiment, six commercial seed sources were tested in the greenhouse for their response to a single isolate of FOB at four inoculum concentrations (0, 102, 104, 106) at the 6-leaf stage of growth. Differential susceptibility of the ‘Nufar’ seed source lines was only revealed at a concentration of 104, but not at the lowest (102) or highest (106) concentrations. To understand the effects of inoculum concentration (0, 104, 105, or 106), cultivar (‘Caesar’, ‘Nufar’, ‘RU172’), and leaf stage (2, 4, 6) on FOB incidence and severity, a split-split plot experiment was conducted. There was a highly significant (P < 0.0001) cultivar with inoculum concentration interaction effect on AUDPC, final plant height, and mortality. There were significant leaf stage with inoculum concentration interaction effects on AUDPC values (P = 0.0093) and percentage of live plants (P <0.0001). There was a significant cultivar by leaf stage interaction effect (P = 0.0006) on the final plant height. These results demonstrate that inoculum concentration and leaf stage interact to influence FOB incidence and severity. Based on our results, we recommend (i) screening at an intermediate inoculum concentration of 104 and a range of leaf stages; and (ii) culturing stem tissue from asymptomatic plants to detect latent infections.
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