Biochar from different sources against tomato bacterial wilt disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum

The addition of biochar to the soil has been seen as a potential and low-cost important tool in the management of tomato diseases. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of biochar from different sources applied to the sandy soil against bacterial wilt disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum in tomatoes. We set up two experiments: (1) To evaluate the impact of different sources of biochar: cassava husk (CHB), bean straw (BPB), sugar cane straw (SSB), and corn straw (CPB) in reducing the growth of the R. solanacearum in vitro; and (2) To evaluate the effect of the use of these biochars applied to the soil on reducing the severity of bacterial wilt in tomatoes. The different sources of biochar are efficient in reducing the formation of colony-forming units of R. solanacearum. CHB reduced the growth of the bacterium by 19%, followed by CPB and BPB, which showed an approximate reduction of 16% and 13%, respectively. Biochar BPB and CHB applied to the sandy soil were able to reduce the severity of bacterial wilt in tomatoes by 30%. Overall, our findings expand our knowledge about the reuse of wastes transformed in biochar that has potential perspective to formulate products as alternative management tool as management of bacterial wild (R. solanacearum) in tomato and add important information that can be suitable for development of strategy for use in the global health concept.