• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.58-66
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• 2015

This study was conducted to evaluate control efficacy of a fermented food 'Cheonggukjang' against cucumber powdery mildew caused by Sphaerotheca fuliginea in greenhouse. Sterilized Daepung beans were inoculated with the rice straw as natural inoculum and then incubated for 72 hrs at $42^{\circ}C$ in the household cheonggkjang maker. After 72 hrs of cheonggukjang fermentation, white zymogens were grown on the surface of a sterile Daepung beans. The pH of the 72 hrs fermented soybean was not significantly changed and electrical conductivity was found to increase by about 2 times than before fermentation. The population density of soybean zymogen showed a peak of growth at 60 hrs after fermentation and the concentration of zymogen was $8.2{\times}10^7cfu/ml$. Soybean zymogen form of the colony was divided into three kinds of bacteria and a white and a large colony (WL) was predominant bacteria among those up to 60 hrs of fermentation. To control the cucumber powdery mildew, diluted solutions of cheonggukjang was applied from 6.0% to 30.0% on cucumber leaves and they showed injury symptoms on cucumber leaves in more than 15% of them. However, more than 6.0% diluted cheonggukjang solutions showed more than 77.8% control effect of cucumber powdery mildew at 15 days after treatment. The fermented bacteria of Chenggukjang were well established in the cucumber leaf area at 15 days after treatment. The antifungal activity of 10% diluted cheonggukjang solutions was excellent for four species of plant fungal pathogens, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Sclerotinia cepivorum, Rhizoctonia sloani and Phytophthora capsici in the dual culture test. Results indicated that foliar application of Cheonggukjang solution could be used for the control of powdery mildews occurring on organically cultivated cucumber.