Biocides as Alternatives Fungicides for the Control of Postharvest Potato Dry Rot Disease

Post-harvest potato disease management remains a major problem. Using of biological and environmentally friendly alternatives has become the most important to protect potato tubers from post-harvest diseases, especially Fusarium solani that causes dry rot disease. We applied eleven treatments compared to the control to suppress Fusarium dry rot disease in potato tubers. Laboratory tests revealed citric acid has much greater antifungal activity than biological agents, seaweed products, and inorganic salts. In vivo test revealed that citric acid was the best choice in this application, followed by aluminum chloride, sodium carbonate, and boric acid. The polyphenol content of tubers increased compared to the control, and the protein content of potato tubers also increased through the addition of algae and aluminum chloride treatments. The impact of these treatments on the quality characteristics of potato tubers was investigated, in this regard, the effect total soluble solids content (TSS) improved as follows: first salicylic acid, then citric acid, then copper sulphate, then boric, and finally Gino S compared to the control and thiabendazole as a reference fungicide. Our study showed that all treatments led to a significant decrease in total acid levels in potato tubers, except for Biozeid, aluminum chloride, salicylic acid, oxalic acid and Biozeid had the highest significant amount of ascorbic acid.