Effect of Soil Solarization on Soil Borne Fungi, the Growth and Yield of Tomato Grown In Clay Loam Soil at Alexandria Governorate, Egypt

Mulching by 100 μ thickness transparent plastic sheets compared with specific fungicides for controlling soil borne fungi were carried out at Al-Sabahia, Horticulture Research Station, Alexandria Governorate, Egypt. Solar heating resulted from mulching gradually reduced the tested soil borne-fungi to very low levels, comparable with non-mulched treatment. Soil Temperature, fungal frequency and tomato yield were recorded during the experimental seasons. The results indicated that there were no significant differences between the three months mulching and specific fungicides treatments effect against soil borne fungi. So, it could be concluded that possibility of using mulching method to control soil-borne diseases pathogens in the clay loam soil by planting the crop in solarized fields. The results also proved significant effect of the soil solarization on the vegetative growth of tomato plants and enhanced the yield and its components compared with thecontrol. The results for the total yield per feddan proved that there were no significant differences between the treated root with fungicide and the three month soil solarization treatments in both seasons. The percentages increase in the estimated total yield per feddan were 21.40, 18.95, 12.40 and 3.11% for treated root with fungicide, three, two and one month treatments over the control, respectively in 2014 season, whereas, they were 25.65, 22.51, 16.40 and 9.52% for the same treatments, respectively in the 2015 season.