Relationship between soil physicochemical characteristics and soil-borne diseases

Soil-borne pathogens cause about 90% of major plant diseases. Pathogen population densities and infection frequencies vary widely with soil physicochemical characteristics which in turn have complex broad ranges differ with time and space. It is a difficult task to change a soil property in favour of particular crop disease suppression and if achieved that alteration influences the health of other crops sown in the same field in next season. A number of articles elaborate the effects of different soil characteristics on a particular disease or diseases of a particular crop. A little or no effort is done to sum up the impact of a particular soil character on a number of diseases of different crops. In this article important soil characteristics are discussed with relation to suppression of diseases of different crop plants. The soil physiochemical characteristic can play vital role in microbial growth, sporulation and diversity and ultimately disease incidence.