Soil Solarization Efficiently Reduces Fungal Soilborne Pathogen Populations, Promotes Lettuce Plant Growth, and Affects the Soil Bacterial Community.

Lettuce is the most cultivated leafy vegetable in Greece; however, due to the adopted intensive cropping system, its cultivation is susceptible to many soilborne pathogens that cause significant yield and quality losses. In the current study, the impact of various soil disinfestation methods such as solarization, chemical disinfestation, and application of a biofungicide were evaluated in a commercial field that has been repeatedly used for lettuce cultivation. The populations of soilborne pathogens