Effect of Field Pea (Pisum arvense L.) as a Cover Plant on Health of Under-Ground Part of Field Tomato

No-tillage method with various cover crops has become popular recently in vegetable production (Abdul-Baki et al. 1996). The aim of a study conducted in 1998-2000 was evaluation of the effect of field pea (Pisum arvense L.) as a cover crop on the health of roots and stem base of tomato cultivated in the field. The field pea decreased the number of Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani and increased the number of antagonistic fungi Trichoderma spp. and Penicillium spp. on the roots and stem base of tomato.

The numerical classification method (Podani 1993, Łaska 2001) applied to compare fungal communities from the roots and stem base of tomato grown conventionally and in field with pea as cover crop showed that similarity coefficient ranged from 21% to 59%.