Efficacy evaluation of EM for plant disease control

Efficacy of Effective Microorganisms (EM) for production of SUTOJU as pesticides to control some important pathogens of vegetable and fruit crops was preliminary evaluated under both laboratory and greenhouse at Kasetsart University and Department of Agriculture. In laboratory test, EM or SUTOJU was no effective for growth inhibition of phytopathogenic bacteria and fungi as compared with either antibiotics or fungicides. However, there were some inhibition of bacterial and fungal pathogens in the treatment containing acetic acid which was the ingredient of SUTOJU. The bacteria were comprised of twelve strains of Xanthomonas campestris (X.c.) pv. citri, and each strain of X.c. pv. campestris, Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora and Pseudomonas solanacearum whereas the fungus pathogens were included Colletotrichum capsici, C. gloeosporioides, Sclerotium rolfsii, Phytophthora parasitica and Fusarium moniliforme. For the greenhouse experiments, bacterial canker of lime, Phytophthora root rot of citrus, Sclerotium rot of tomato and Papaya ringspot disease were evaluated for efficacy of EM, SUTOJU and SUTOJU ingredient comparing with fungicides and water as control. All EM and SUTOJU treatments were no effective to control the diseases and no significant different from water control whereas fungicide treatments provided more effective control of bacterial and fungal diseases. These results indicated that EM or SUTOJU was no effectiveness to control either bacterial, fungal and viral diseases of crop plants.