Three assays were carried out in Botucatu, state of São Paulo (22º51'S and 48º26'W), in a closed plastic greenhouse to verify the efficiency of the soil solarization method on survival of Phytophthora capsici, the causal agent of blight in peppers (Capsicum annuum). The assays were performed over three different 35-day periods in the summer, autumn and winter of 1998. The pathogen, cultivated on wheat seeds, was put into nylon bags and buried at depths of 5, 15 and 25 cm in two identical plots of 33,25 m² each; one of them was covered with transparent polyethylene of 75 mum (solarized) while the control was left other without a cover. It was concluded that the solarization method, in the plastic greenhouse, was efficient in these assays for controlling P. capsici put in soil artificially in all three periods, length of time the soil, must be covered, according to the season.
