Abstract\n Lemon grass, thyme and rose essential oils have been found to have inhibitory effects against the mycelial growth of Aspergillus niger under in vitro conditions. Results indicated that all essential oils treatments significantly reduced the linear growth of A. niger. Complete reduction was obtained with thyme and lemongrass at concentration of 0.5%. Moreover, essential oils used to coat seeds and sown in soil drenched with B. subtilis resulted in a significant reduction of crown rot incidence of peanut, at both pre- and post-emergence stages under field conditions. Rose, thyme and lemongrass in descending order could reduce the incidence of crown rot at both pre-and post-emergence stages at the two successive growing seasons 2011 and 2012. Higher protective effect against crown rot incidence at both pre- and post-emergence growth stages was observed when essential oils integrated with B. subtilis as an applied soil treatment than that of individual applied treatment. Also Rhizolex-T as seed treatment could significantly reduce disease incidence over the control treatment. As for the harvested yield, all treatments were significantly higher than that in the control treatment. The treatments of essential oils as seed dressing plus the bio-agent B. subtilis showed higher yield production than those treatments using an essential oil or B. subtilis alone. The present results show that application of essential oils in integration with the bio-agent B. subtilis may be considered as an applicable, safe and cost-effective method for controlling such soil-borne diseases.

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