Both pre-planting or post-planting applications of antagonistic
bacterial isolates to the infested peat mix showed equal effectiveness
in suppressing damping-off and root rot of cucumber seedlings and in increasing the mean plant fresh masses (Table 2). As a
pre-planting treatment to infested peat mix, all 3 bacterial isolates
protected cucumber seedlings from Pythium damping-off and root
rot by significantly increasing the percentage of healthy cucumber
seedlings by 125%–290% and reducing disease severity by
26.9%–50% as compared with the infested control (Table 2). The
disease protection was comparable or better than the AG3 phosphonate
pre-planting treatment. The mean fresh mass of cucumber
plants produced in pots receiving pre-planting application of
bacteria was significantly higher than that of plants produced in
the pathogen-infested (151% to 184% increase) and noninfested
(21% to 37% increase) control pots (Table 2).