Surface Coated Sulfur Nanoparticles Suppress <i>Fusarium</i> Disease in Field Grown Tomato: Increased Yield and Nutrient Biofortification
Yi Wang, Chaoyi Deng, Yu Shen, Jaya Borgatta, Christian O. Dimkpa, Baoshan Xing, Om Parkash Dhankher, Zhenyu Wang, Jason C. White, Wade H. Elmer
Abstract
Little is known about the effect of nano sulfur (NS) under field conditions as a multifunctional agricultural amendment. Pristine and surface coated NS (CS) were amended in soil at 200 mg/kg that was planted with tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and infested with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici. Foliar exposure of CS (200 μg/mL) was also included. In healthy plants, CS increased tomato marketable yield up to 3.3∼3.4-fold compared to controls. In infested treatments, CS significantly reduced disease severity compared to the other treatments. Foliar and soil treatment with CS increased yield by 107 and 192% over diseased controls, respectively, and significantly increased fruit Ca, Cu, Fe, and Mg contents. A $33/acre investment in CS led to an increase in marketable yield from 4920 to 11,980 kg/acre for healthy plants and from 1135 to 2180 kg/acre for infested plants, demonstrating the significant potential of this nanoenabled strategy to increase food production.