Preventive and Curative Antifungal Activity of the Sodium Silicate on Postharvest Crown Rot in Banana cv. Enano Gigante

The antifungal activity of sodium silicate (SS) on crown rot (CR) of banana cv. 'Enano Gigante' artificially inoculated with C. musae (Cm) and incubated at 24–26 °C and 80–90% of relative humidity (RH) for 7 d was determined. SS treatments were tested in in vitro and in vivo primary experiments. The in vivo preventive preliminary concentration of 130 mM SS was chosen as the most effective and it was used in the experiments on the influence of dip temperature on the effectiveness of SS. Preventive dip treatments of SS at 130 mM at 40 °C for 20 min applied alone or combined with low doses of thiabendazole (TBZ) were evaluated on CR, as well as the effect of SS on banana fruit quality. SS at 70 and 110 mM totally inhibited the mycelial growth and the germination of C. musae (Cm) conidia (84.00%), respectively. In in vivo primary experiments, the concentration of 130 mM SS reduced the severity of CR in preventive (78.57% of reduction) and curative (50.00% of reduction) treatments, but not the incidence of CR. Among the dips with SS at 130 mM for 20 min tested at different temperatures, the preventive dip at 40 °C reduced the incidence and severity of CR by 66.70 and 95.20%, respectively. SS at 130 mM combined with TBZ at 225 ppm did not improved the preventive control effectiveness on CR. SS did not affect the quality of banana fruit.