Relationship between potassium chloride suppression of corn stalk rot and soil microorganism characteristics

Abstract

Observations from a site-fixed field trial of 12 years in Jilin Province show that potassium chloride (KCl) application has a significant positive influence on corn stalk rot incidence. Incubation experiments were conducted to study the effects of KCl and soil extracts on the growth of Fusarium graminearum, the most common stalk rot fungi in this area, and the population changes in rhizosphere fungi, bacteria and actinomyces at different growth stages of corn. The results show that KCl addition to the potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium could not directly suppress Fusarium graminearum development. Soil extracts from soil samples taken from the field plots with and without KCl application affected Fusarium graminearum development, with soil extracts with KCl treatments suppressing Fusarium graminearum development more significantly, compared with that from the KCl-free treatment. These results indicate that soil extracts play a role in the interaction between corn and Fusarium graminearum. Long-term KCl application may increase the populations of rhizosphere fungi and actinomyces in the early growth stages, while there is no significant difference in the number of bacteria in rhizosphere among the treatments. Also, the populations of rhizosphere fungi are negatively correlated with the incidence of stalk rot in the early growth stages of corn. The sensitive infection stages of pathogen to corn consist of the stages when there is significant difference in the populations of rhizosphere fungi and actinomyces. The change of microorganism populations (especially fungi) in soil may be associated with the incidence decrease and is one of the mechanisms of KCl suppressing corn stalk rot.