Evaluation of ethylicin as a potential soil fumigant in commercial tomato production in China

Recent increases in soil-borne plant disease have limited further expansion of some crops produced in protected agriculture. Soil fumigation effectively minimizes the impact of soil pathogens causing many diseases. We provide the first report of the efficacy of the Chinese fungicide ethylicin as a soil fumigant against the plant pathogens such as Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp., and against the plant parasitic nematode Meloidogyne spp. We also examined ethylicin's impact on the physicochemical properties of soil, the soil's bacterial and fungal taxonomic composition, the plant growth of tomatoes, the enzyme activity of soil and tomato yield. Ethylicin fumigation significantly decreased the abundance of Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp. by 67.7 %–84.0 % and 53.8 %–81.0 %, respectively. It reduced Meloidogyne spp. by 67.2 %–83.6 %. Ethylicin significantly increased the growth of tomato plants and tomato yield by 18.3 %–42.0 %. The soil's ammonium‑nitrogen concentration increased significantly in answer to ethylicin fumigation, while nitrate‑nitrogen concentration and the activity of soil urease decreased significantly. High-throughput gene sequencing had been used to show that ethylicin cut down the taxonomic soil bacteria diversity and bacterial abundance, but increased the soil fungi taxonomic diversity. Some genera of microorganisms increased, such as Firmicutes, Steroidobacter and Chytridiomycota, possibly due to changes in the physicochemical properties of soil that differentially favored their survival. We conclude that ethylicin is efficacious as a soil fumigant and it would be a useful addition to the limited number of soil fumigants currently available. • Ethylicin soil fumigation controlled key soil-borne pathogens. • Ethylicin soil fumigation increased fungal diversity. • Ethylicin fumigation significantly increased tomato yield. • Ethylicin is a soil fumigant with potential to improve production in many crops.