Effects of Ethylicin Fumigation on Soil-Borne Diseases and Tomato Growth in an Organic Agricultural Park

Long-term continuous cropping aggravates soil-borne diseases and seriously affects crop growth, yield, and quality. Soil fumigation is an effective approach for reducing soil-borne pathogen pressure before crop planting, but environmentally compatible alternatives to conventional fumigants are still needed. The objective of this study was to evaluate the field efficacy of ethylicin as a soil fumigant for controlling major soil-borne pathogens under organic greenhouse production conditions and to determine its effects on soil physicochemical properties and tomato growth and yield. Two consecutive years of field trials were conducted at Yanqing Organic Park. During fumigation, the maximum soil temperature reached 50.8 °C at the soil surface and 42.6 °C at a depth of 10 cm, which may have contributed to pathogen suppression and enhanced the fumigation effect of ethylicin. Ethylicin markedly reduced the populations of Fusarium spp., Phytophthora spp., and Meloidogyne spp., with control efficacies ranging from 96.44% to 97.73%, 68.12% to 95.30%, and 72.12% to 96.91%, respectively. Fumigation also altered soil physicochemical and nutrient properties, decreasing NO3−–N content and electrical conductivity while increasing NH4+–N, organic matter, and available potassium. Tomato plant height, stem diameter, and chlorophyll content increased by 16.52%, 20.71%, and 6.73%, respectively, and yield increased by 35.28–38.83% over the two years. Phytophthora parasitica-associated root rot was also reduced following ethylicin fumigation, with the disease index decreasing from 3.75 ± 3.23 to 1.25 ± 2.50 in 2023 and from 5.56 ± 1.92 to 0 in 2024; no visible root rot symptoms were observed in the ethylicin treatment in 2024. Overall, ethylicin provided stable suppression of major soil-borne pathogens while improving soil nutrient conditions and tomato performance. These results support the potential of ethylicin as a pre-plant soil fumigant for greenhouse vegetable production, particularly in systems with high requirements for pesticide-residue control and environmental safety.