Flame soil disinfestation: A novel, promising, non-chemical method to control soilborne nematodes, fungal and bacterial pathogens in China

•Flame soil disinfestation (FSD) is a novel method to control soilborne pests.•Two field experiments evaluated the efficacy of FSD.•The study confirms FSD provides a promising method for soilborne nematodes, fungal and bacterial pathogens control.•Nematodes and pathogens were Meloidogyne incognita, Fusarium oxysporum, Phytophthora spp. and Ralstonia solanacearum.

Flame soil disinfestation (FSD) is a novel, promising non-chemical method to control soilborne nematodes, fungal and bacterial pathogens in China. The efficacy of FSD on soilborne nematodes, fungal and bacterial pathogens was evaluated during two field trials. The field trials revealed that the treatment with FSD once (FSD1) and treatment with FSD twice (FSD2) sharply reduced the total number of soilborne nematodes (>95%) and completely controlled Meloidogyne incognita in the soil. Both FSD1 and FSD2 also provided promising efficacy against soilborne Fusarium oxysporum (>44%), Phytophthora spp. (>47%) and Ralstonia solanacearum (>67%) on media. However, there was no significant difference between FSD1 and FSD2 in controlling soilborne nematodes, fungal and bacterial pathogens (P = 0.05). Currently, there are two challenges to distribute the technology in China: its high cost and relatively low efficiency because of the low speed of application compared with soil chemical fumigation. Despite the drawbacks, FSD is still promising in organic agriculture for controlling soilborne nematodes, fungal and bacterial pathogens.