This study aimed to establish the economic and technical applicability of the alternative control methods to methyl bromide (MB) in pepper and eggplant. These crops were grown in plastic houses and tunnels including open field strawberry cultivation in the East Mediterranean region of Turkey and were assessed over the 2000-2002 growing season. | Turk J Agric For 31 (2007) 47-53 © TÜB‹TAK Alternative Treatments to Methyl Bromide in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey Seral YÜCEL1*, ‹brahim Halil ELEKÇ‹O⁄LU2, Canan CAN3, Mehmet Ali SÖ⁄ÜT2, Adem ÖZARSLANDAN1 1 Plant Protection Research Institute, Adana - TURKEY 2University 3University of Çukurova, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Plant Protection, Adana - TURKEY of Gaziantep, Faculty of Science and Letter, Department of Biology, Gaziantep - TURKEY Received: Abstract: This study aimed to establish the economic and technical applicability of the alternative control methods to methyl bromide (MB) in pepper and eggplant. These crops were grown in plastic houses and tunnels including open field strawberry cultivation in the East Mediterranean region of Turkey and were assessed over the 2000-2002 growing season. In addition the study using a pre and post questionnaire aimed to monitor the change in farmer practices who have adopted alternative techniques other than MB, and their understanding of the environmental concerns associated with MB such as ozone depletion. Experiments were conducted under farmer’s field conditions, and solarization was combined with fresh cow manure, low dosage pesticides and/or antagonistic microorganisms. Effect of these treatments on soil-borne pathogens and nematodes were determined, and also results indicated solarization combined with dazomet at 400 kg ha-1 was just as effective as MB application to soil-borne diseases and nematode control in plastic-houses. In this treatment, yield was obtained as much as in MB treatments in eggplant, while pepper and strawberry yield was less. Yield was determined as 109 and 36 t ha-1 in fresh cow manure combined with solarization treatment, however it was 115 and 51 t ha-1 in MB in eggplant and strawberry, respectively. This application was preferred to the MB alternative due to its low cost applicability. Results obtained from the questionnaire indicated .
