STUDIES ON SOME FUNGAL DISEASES INFECTING ONION CROP IN EGYPT

Abstract

Onion is an important crop in Egypt scheduled for local consumption and exportation. It is famous allover the world for its superior quality and early appearance in European markets.

During the last few years, the cultivated area with such crop profoundly decreased because the serious damage of the crop yield due to infection with several diseases that attack onion either during the growing season or transit and storage as well.

These diseases are caused mainly by fungi and bacteria, which causing a great losses in yield and quality of bulbs.

Since several investigators have claimed that the quality of stored onions is greatly influenced by several pre-harvest treatments. Therefore, the course of this investigation included some aspects during growing season or post-harvest to protect the crop from microbial attack, especially during prolonged storage and also to minimize the bulb losses due to these diseases.

Results obtained from this investigation could be summarized as follows: • Survey investigations and isolation tests.

Isolation experiments showed that onion 1s attacked by many pathogens -that cause white rot (Sclerotium cepivorum), neck rot (Botrytis allii), black mould (Aspergillus niger), basal rot (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cepa) and other bacterial disease of onion importance.