Alternative Soil Solarization Treatments for the Control of Soil-borne Diseases and Weeds of Strawberry in the Western Anatolia of Turkey

Field experiments were conducted in the two cropping seasons between 2002 and 2004 to determine effects on soil-borne diseases, weeds and yield of strawberry of raised bed solarization (RBS), alone or with chicken manure (CM) amendment, methyl bromide (MB), TeloDrip (1,3-dichloropropene + chloropicrin), short RBS combined with reduced doses of metam sodium (MS) and TeloDrip. In both seasons, raised bed soil solarization (for 7 weeks) alone or with CM amendment (10 t/ha), MS (50 ml/m2) after 2-week RBS, and MB (50 g/m2) significantly reduced soil-borne diseases (caused by Rhizoctonia spp. and Phytophthora cactorum) while application of TeloDrip at a rate of 500 kg/ha and a half-dose after short solarization controlled the soil-borne diseases to a lesser extent in the 2003–2004 cropping season. All treatments provided effective control of four weed species; annual bluegrass (Poa annua), common purslane (Portulaca oleracea), redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus) and barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) but not horseweed (Conyza canadensis). In the first year trial, total marketable yields from RBS with or without CM and 2-week solarization plus MS were equivalent to yields produced by MB treatment whereas only raised bed soil solarization and CM amendment led to the same increase of yield as MB in the second year.