Chemical and physical disinfection of peanut pods for improved seed quality

Abstract Peanut pod wart is a new disease in Israel that causes ugly warts on the pod. The causal agent, Streptomyces sp., contaminates seed during mechanical cracking of pods. Low-volume application of 3% iodine dissolved in glacial acetic acid resulted in effective pod disinfection and reduced the surface pods microflora by 4 log orders, but this mixture causes eye irritation and has an unpleasant smell. A 4 s exposure of the pods to a butane-air flame at 740 °C eradicated the pathogen and even a 6 s exposure did not affect seed germination or yield. This physical treatment also reduced significantly the incidence of other seedborne fungi, e.g. Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus stolonifer , in the laboratory and in a large-scale field test. Flaming enables the treatment of large quantities of pods prior to cracking.