EFFECT OF ANAEROBIC SOIL DISINFESTATION ON WEED SEED GERMINATION

The project goal is to optimize anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) as an alternative to methyl bromide fumigation using strawberry on coastal California and pepper/eggplant double crop in southeast Florida as model systems (Shennan et al., 2007). Prior to initiating field experiments, a series of pot experiments were conducted to examine the effect of ASD with varying plastic tarps, soil types, carbon sources, and temperature conditions on weed seed germination and survival of the soil-borne pathogen, Verticillium dahliae. Here we only present results on weed seed germination. Effect of varying plastic tarps under simulated coastal California conditions A split plot experiment with temperature as the main plot (15 or 25 ◦C), type of tarp (no tarp, green, white/black (both 1.25 mil standard polyethylene films), VIF (1.25 mil embossed black tarp), or pit tarp (8 mil black/white tarp)), and soils (Watsonville sandy clay loam or Moss Landing sandy loam) as split plots, was performed with two replicates. Soil was mixed with 10 ton/ha equivalent of wheat bran and packed into a PVC pot (15 x 20 cm). Two nylon mesh packets, eac