Occurrence and Biological Control of Postharvest Decay in Onion Caused by Fungi

Postharvest decay of onion bulbs was examined by inspecting the commercial packages in the market or in storage. Bulb rot incidence was unexpectedly high, and onion bulbs with 1st quality grade were rotten most severely by 51%, followed by 32% for 2nd and 21% for 3rd grades. This indicates that larger bulbs had higher incidences of bulb rots. Major pathogens associated with basal and neck rots were Fusarium oxysporum and Aspergillus sp. or Botrytis allii, respectively, of which basal rot was most prevalent and damaging during storage. Among the epiphytic microorgani는 from onion plants, several Bacillus and Paenibacillus spp. and previously selected Pseudomonas putida and Trichoderma harzianum had inhibitory efficacy against bulb rot pathogens. Among these B. amyloliquefaciens BL-3, Paenibacillus polymyxa BL-4, and P. putida Cha 94 were highly inhibitory to conidial germination of F. oxysporum and B. allii. P. putida Cha 94, B. amyloliquefaciens BL-3, P. polymyxa BL-4, and T. harzianum TM were applied in the rhizoplane of onion at transplanting. Initially antagonist populations decreased rapidly during the first one month. However, among these antagonists, rhizoplane population densities of BL-3, Cha 94, and TM were consistently high thereafter, maintaining about 10$^4$-10$^{5}$ cells or spores per gram of onion root up to harvest time. The other bacterial antagonist BL-4 survived only for two months. TM was the most effective biocontrol agent against basal rot, with the number of rotten bulbs recorded at 4%, while that of the control was 16%. Cha 94 was effective for the first 20 days, but basal rot increased thereafter and had about the same control efficacy as that of BL-3 and BL-4. When the antagonists were applied to the topping areas of onion bulbs at harvest, TM was the most effective in protecting the stored onion bulbs from neck rotting. The second effective antagonist was BL-3. TM and BL-3 completely suppressed the neck rot in another test, suggesting that biocontrol of postharvest decay of onion using these microorganisms either at the time of transplanting or at harvesting may be promising.