Evaluation of Peroxyacetic Acid (PAA) for Controlling Bacterial Soft Rot of some Vegetable Fruits and Potato Tubers Caused by Erwinia carotovora subsp. carotovora

A strong oxidizing compound, peroxyacetic acid (PAA) which formed by mixing hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) with acetic acid, gave a promising control approach against soft rot bacteria. Since, wetting fleshy plant organs by PAA significantly reduced soft rot severity as compared to check organs (untreated organs). All tested vegetable fruits, i.e. eggplant, pepper, tomato, cucumber, squash and okra plus potato tubers were responded to PAA treatment. However, pepper fruits showed the highest protection followed by eggplant, squash, cucumber and okra, while tomato fruits showed the least protection value. Potato tubers gave 50% protection. Storage temperature is important, since at 35ºC decay was developed at short period while at 5ºC was delayed. Efficacy of peroxyacetic acid to reduce bacterial soft rot was differed significantly with both storage temperatures and the tested vegetable fruits or tubers. Either wounded or sound treated vegetable fruits or tubers responded to PAA treatment that showed significant reduction in soft rot severity by 41.1-72.2% in case of unwounded treated vegetable fruits or tubers by about 20–66% in case of wounded treated vegetable fruits or tubers. PAA was more effective to reduce bacterial soft rot severity when unwounded fruits or tubers were pre-inoculation treated.