Effects of Soil Amendments on Soil Properties, Soil-Borne Pathogens, and Strawberry Growth after Dazomet Fumigation

Abstract

Soil fumigation can kill soil pathogens and solve the problem of crop continuous cropping. However, soil fumigation also has negative effects on the soil environment. One way to mitigate the negative effects is to apply soil amendments, but there is limited evidence of the effects of combining soil fumigation and amendments. This study was a controlled environmental pot trial. We measured the effects of dazomet fumigation combined with soil amendments on soil-borne pathogens, soil nutrients, enzyme activities, and strawberry growth. The results showed that dazomet fumigation combined with soil amendments significantly increased the content of ammonium nitrogen, available phosphorus and organic matter and increased soil activities by varying degrees. We also found that the control effect of soil-borne pathogens Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp. was further enhanced, reaching 88.97–96.88%. Correlation analysis showed that the growth indices of strawberries such as plant height, stem diameter, chlorophyll content, and fresh weight were negatively correlated with Fusarium spp. (R = −0.75, R= −0.62, R = −0.71, R = −0.88; p < 0.01) and Phytophthora spp. (R = −0.72, R= −0.72, R = −0.78, R = −0.91; p ≤ 0.001), respectively. The effect of fumigation combined with soil amendments was better than that of fumigation alone, and silicon fertilizer had the best effect. Our study suggests that dazomet fumigation combined with soil amendments can improve soil nutrient supply, activate soil enzyme activities, enhance the control effect of soil-borne pathogens, and thus promote strawberry growth.