Browsing by Subject "Pythium ultimum"

In previous studies of Natural Resources Institute Finland it was noticed that Sphagnum moss had almost as good growing media properties as the white horticultural peat. In addition the Sphagnum moss based growing media prevented efficiently seed-borne Alternaria seedling blight and mosses were not molded with Peziza ostracoderma Korf that appears commonly on white horticultural peat. This thesis was part of the project of Natural Resources Institute entitled “Disease suppressive features of Sphagnum mosses”. The research aimed to survey the existence and applicability of fungistasis of Sphagnum moss as growing media. In the greenhouse experiments comparisons were made between mosses from six different sphagnum bog origins in their ability to suppress damping-off caused by Alternaria, Rhizoctonia and Pythium. Disease suppressive features of four sphagnum bogs mosses from three harvest depths were also determined. In the end of experiments the coverage by molds was determined and the fresh weights of seedlings were measured. In laboratory the amounts of common antagonist microbes in Sphagnum mosses were studied using different selective growth media. Results of different experiments were compared to white peat. In greenhouse experiments it was noticed that disease suppressive features varied a lot depending on the origin of the mosses and had different effects against different damp-ing-off pathogens. Mosses in the uppermost layers had best disease suppressive features against all three pathogens. The healthiest and biggest seedlings were obtained in growing media that contained mainly Sphagnum mosses and only a minimum amount of other peatland vegetation. There were only small amounts of molds on the top of Sphagnum moss growth media but also some phytotoxicity on seedlings was obtained Sphagnum mosses had only small amounts of antagonistic microbes as compared with peat. The results indicated that Sphagnum mosses have potential as growing medium that could efficiently prevent damping-off diseases and molds. However variation of disease suppressive was observed, which calls for more experiments to verify these effects. Minor amounts of antagonistic microbes detected in Sphagnum, as compared with white peat, suggests that disease suppressiveness may be caused by the phenolic compounds of Sphganum mosses.