International Conference on Food Science and Engineering 2022 IOP Publishing

IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1200 (2023) 012061 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1200/1/012061

Health of shallot bulbs planted with mycorrhizal applications

and several types of mulch in moler disease conducive land

Supyani123, SH Poromarto123, Supriyadi123, R Utaminingsih1 and Hadiwiyono123

1
Department of Agrotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sebelas Maret,
Surakarta, Indonesia
2
Magister Program of Agronomi, Faculty of Agriculture, Universitas Sebelas Maret,
Surakarta, Indonesia
3
Doctoral Program of Agriculture Sciences, Fakultas Pertanian, Universitas Sebelas
Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia

*Email: supyani@staff.uns.ac.id; hadiwiyono@staff.uns.ac.id;

susiloporomarto@staff.uns.ac.id; supriyadi58@staff.uns.ac.id;
rahayuutaminingsih1@student.uns.ac.id

Abstract. Moler is one of the important diseases of shallots caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.
cepae. Recently, it is very detrimental to one of the shallot production centers in Indonesia,
namely Brebes, Central Java. The intensity and yield loss of this pathogen attack can exceed
60% and 50% respectively. Efforts to develop sustainable control are urgently carried out, such
as the use of biological control agents and environmental management by using mulch. This
paper reports on the health of shallot bulbs grown with the application of mycorrhiza and mulch.
This research was conducted on shallot land conducive to moler disease, in Sidamulya, Wanasari
District, Brebes Regency, Central Java with alluvial soil type. The results showed that the health
Index of bulbs in the mycorrhizal treatment was 98.89%. In the combination treatment of
mycorrhizae with some organic mulch, reached health index of shallot bulbs by 100%.

1. Introduction
The productivity of shallots in Indonesia is still low, ranging from 3-12 tons/ha with an average of about
9 tons/ha [1,2]. One of the shallot production centers is Brebes district which contributes 18.5% to
Indonesia's national needs and 57% in Java [3] with an average production of 7.8 tons/ha [4].
Meanwhile, shallot production with optimal cultivation technology can reach 18.7%[5] or 17-20
tons/ha[6]. One of the causes of low shallot productivity is the attack of disease-causing pathogens. The
most feared shallot disease in Brebes is moler, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cepae [7–9]. The
magnitude of the risk of yield loss caused by the attack of mole pathogens can be more than 50% [10–
12]. Moler disease control carried out by Brebes farmers still relies on the intensive use of fungicides
every 3-5 days [11,13]. Intensive use of fungicides can cause pathogen resistance (Hambeg et al. in the
publication process) and reduce the potential for biological control agents from fungal groups such as
Trichoderma (Supyani et al. in publication process). Therefore, sustainable disease management that is
safe, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly such as biological control, is important [14,15]. One of
the biological disease control agents is mycorrhizae [16–18]. Mycorrhizae can increase plant growth
through the effectiveness of absorbing nutrients, especially P, Ca, N, Cu, Mn, K, and Mg elements.

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International Conference on Food Science and Engineering 2022 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1200 (2023) 012061 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1200/1/012061

Mycorrhizal colonization on plant roots can expand the root absorption area in the presence of external
hyphae that grow and develop through root hairs [19]. In addition, mycorrhizae can increase plant
resistance to disease-causing pathogens [20,21]. Environmental management through farming practices
is critical in biological control in the field to create suitable habitats for biological control agents [22].
One environmental management through cultivation practices is the using mulch [23]. The aim of this
research, is to evaluate of the application effects of mycorrhizae and several types of mulch on the health
index of shallot bulbs.

2. Material and Methods

This research was carried out from September 2021-February 2022 in Sidamulya Village, Wanasari
District, Brebes Regency. The soil type in the study is alluvial soil. The tools used include mulch holes,
analytical balances, Petri dish, Erlenmeyer, light & stereo microscopes, test tubes & racks, preparations
& cover glass, tweezers, test tubes, pipettes, centrifuges & centrifuge tubes, 45 m, 90 m, and 120 m
filters. , and ovens. The materials used were mycorrhizae, shallot seeds of Bima Brebes variety, silver
plastic mulch, transparent plastic mulch, reed leaf mulch, rice husk mulch, shallot leaf mulch, roots of
shallot harvest, brown envelope, filter paper, 10% KOH, HCl 2%, Trypan blue 0.05%, distilled water,
and glucose.
The research was conducted by field experiment using a Completely Randomized Design (CRD).
The research has 13 treatments and three replications. The treatments were: control (with no treatment),
silver plastic mulch (Sp), transparant plastic mulch (Tp), reed leaves mulch (Re), rice husks mulch (Rh),
shallot leaves mulch (S), mycorrhizal (M), the combination of mycorrhizal and silver plastic mulch
(M+Sp), mycorrhizal and transparent polyethylene mulch (M+Tp), mycorrhizal and reed mulch (M+Re)
), mycorrhiza and rice husks mulch (M+Rh), as well as a combination of mycorrhizal and shallot leaves
mulch (M+S) (Table 1). Shallots were planted in 13 beds with a bed size of 7.5 m2 and contained three
treatment replications. The main observation variable was the bulb health index. The shallot bulb health
index is the percentage of healthy bulbs calculated based on the intensity of bulb rot. The bulb health
index is the total bulb portion (100%) minus the percentage of diseased seeds or disease intensity (%).
Disease intensity was calculated using the formula:
∑( × )
= ×
× 100% (1)
with IP= bulb rot intensity (%), n= Number of plants from each symptom score, v = score value for each
symptom, N = The number of plants observed, V = The highest symptom score value, with the scoring
used is 0 = No rot symptoms in bulbs, 1= 0% < x 10%, 2= 10% <x 30% , 3= 30% < x 60%, 4= 60% <
x 70%, 5= 70% < x 100% rotten bulbs. The Data analysis used F-test for the data obtained, and if they
were significantly different, continued with DMRT (Duncan's Multiple Range Test) with a 95%
confidence level. Rumus.

3. Results and Discussion

In general, the results showed that applying mycorrhiza on the land before planting could improve the
health of shallot bulbs. However, shallots grown in the control treatment, namely the soil that did not
receive mycorrhizal or mulch treatment, showed the lowest bulb health index of 63.69%. This figure is
significantly different from shallots grown on soil applied to mycorrhizae. Even the treatment of
mycorrhizae in combination with a mulch of reed leaves, rice husks, or shallots gave results with an
index of 100%, meaning the bulbs were visually healthy (Table 1).
The role of mycorrhizae in improving plant health and plant resistance to pathogen attack has been
widely studied [16,18,23]. Wang et al. reported that Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi could increase
Jasmonate resistance to fusarium wilt [20]. Another study also showed that Arbuscular Mycorrhizal
Fungi could effectively control the attack of Fusarium verticillioides which causes ear rot in maize [17].
Begum et al. explained that Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi play a role in regulating plant growth so that
they become tolerant to biotic stresses such as disease-causing pathogens and are also resistant to abiotic
stresses such as drought, salinity, and heavy metals [24]. Sun et al. reported the involvement of

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International Conference on Food Science and Engineering 2022 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1200 (2023) 012061 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1200/1/012061

arbuscular mycorrhizal protein-14-3-3 as a response to abiotic stress [25]. Mycorrhizae help plants
obtain water and nutrients in the soil for plants and protect plants from disease-causing pathogens [26].
Mycorrhizal symbiosis in plants increases plant phosphorus uptake [27].
Increasing plant resistance to abiotic stress has implications for reducing the risk of plant
predisposition to attack by plant pathogens, especially weak pathogens. Predisposition is the breakdown
of plant resistance to pathogen attack due to the weakening of plants due to biotic or abiotic stress [28].
FOCe is a weak pathogen, so plants that grow physiologically healthy will become more resistant to this
pathogen [29,30].

Table 1. The effectiveness of mycorrhizae and mulch on the

health of shallot bulbs planted on soil conducive to moler
disease
Health Index of
Disease Control
Shallot Bulb (%)
Farmer Practice 93.33±02.36 abc
No Treatment 63.89±11.57 d
Silver plastic mulch (Sp) 84.44±03.42 cd
Transparent polyethylene mulch (Tp) 61.11±08.85 d
Reed Leaves mulch (Re) 96.67±04.71 ab
Rice husk mulch (Rh) 96.67±07.71 ab
Shallot Leaves Mulch (S) 95.56±01.57 abc
Mycorrhizae (M) 98.89±06.80 ab
M + Sp 93.89±04.16 abc
M + Tp 92.22±02.08 bc
M + Re 100.00±00.00 a
M + Rh 100.00±00.00 a
M + Sl 100.00±00.00 a
Sig. (p) 0.004
Note: the numbers in the same column followed by the same
letter show no significant difference based on Duncan's
Multiple Range Test at the 95% confidence level.

The results of this study indicate that mulch affects the effectiveness of mycorrhizae in improving
the health of shallot bulbs from FOCe attacks. In general, an organic mulch of reed leaves, shallots, and
rice husks is better for improving the health of shallot bulbs. Ramirez et al. reported that organic mulch
suppresses avocado infection by Phythophthora cinnamoni [31]. In comparison, Xu et al. said that mulch
suppresses litchi downy blight caused by Peronophythora litchii by increasing the diversity of soil
microbial communities [32]. A similar study by Zhang et al. showed that organic mulch increased the
diversity of soil microbes such as groups of bacteria Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, and
Chloroflex and groups of fungi Ascomycota, Mortierellomycota and Basidiomycota became dominant
[33]. Besides that, organic mulch can also increase plant resistance to weak pathogen infection by
increasing plant growth by increasing nutrient availability for plants [34], maintaining water availability
[35], and controlling weeds [36]. Meanwhile, transparent polyethylene mulch was not good for
mycorrhiza. Transparent polyethylene had the negative effect of mycorrhizae symbiosis on shallot. The
application of mycorrhizae combined with transparent polyethylene was no different results from the
control. It is caused by the increase in the temperature of the upper soil as an effect of soil solarization.
Soil solarization can use transparent polyethylene. Transparent polyethylene can increase soil
temperature [37–39], affecting mycorrhizal symbiosis with shallot roots [37,40]. According to
Balakrishna et al., transparent polyethylene can increase soil temperature at a depth of 5-10 cm to more

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International Conference on Food Science and Engineering 2022 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1200 (2023) 012061 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1200/1/012061

than 50 oC [37]. This soil temperature condition reduces the population of soil microbes to control soil-
borne could use transparent polyethylene [38,39]. Research results by Nasil et al. [40] showed positive
effects that could increase mycorrhizal infection in cowpea roots. This information means that the effects
of soil solarization depend on the temperature changes and the plant species. According to Iqbal et
al.[41] mulch can potentially increase plant growth because it can maintain soil moisture, improve soil
nutritional status, control erosion losses, reduce nutrient leaching, suppress weeds, and eliminate
pesticides, fertilizers, and heavy metals residues.

4. Conclusions
The results showed that the health Index of bulbs in the mycorrhizal treatment was 98.89%. While the
organic mulch of reed leaves, rice husks, and shallot leaves were 96.67 in a row; 96.67; and 95.56%. In
the combination treatment of mycorrhizae with organic mulch of reed grass leaves, rice husks, and
shallot leaves, reached health index of bulb by 100%.

Acknowledgments
This manuscript is part of research funded from PNBP funds from Sebelas Maret University for the
2022 fiscal year through contract Number: 254/UN27.22/PT.01.03/2022 Mandatory Research Scheme.

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