Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) is a rich source of polysaccharides (intibin and inulin), vitamins, acids and mineral salts. The present studies determined the antagonistic activity of selected bacteria of the soil environment of root chicory towards fungi pathogenic towards this plant: Alternaria alternata, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium culmorum, F. oxysporum, Thanatephorus cucumeris and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Root chicory was cultivated with using cover crops (oats, tansy phacelia and common vetch). The use of cover crops, especially oats, in the cultivation of root chicory had a positive effect both on the total population of bacteria and the population of Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. in the soil. Antagonistic Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. displayed differentiated activity towards the studied fungi. The greatest antagonistic effect was found out after the mulch of oats. After common vetch, the antagonistic activity of bacteria was more than twice, and after phacelia three times as low as after oats. In the traditional cultivation of root chicory this activity was nearly twelve times lower.