Antifungal

1. A method for suppressing a disease caused by a plant pathogenic fungus, wherein said method comprises applying a composition comprising a Methylobacterium strain comprising NLS0089 (NRRL B-50933) to a plant or a plant part in an amount that provides for reduction of incidence and/or severity of disease caused by said plant pathogenic fungus in said plant, plant part, or a plant grown from the plant part relative to incidence and/or severity of disease in a control plant, control plant part, or control plant grown from the control plant part that had not received an application of said composition, wherein the plant pathogenic fungus is selected from the group consisting of a Rhizoctonia sp., a Fusarium sp., a Pythium sp., a Septoria sp., a Cercospora sp., and a Sclerotinia sp.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said composition further comprises Methylobacterium strain NLS0017 (NRRL B-50931) and/or Methylobacterium strain NLS0020 (NRRL B-50930).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said Methylobacterium is at a titer of at least about 5×10 7 colony-forming units per gram, or at least about 5×10 7 colony-forming units per milliliter.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein said plant part is selected from the group consisting of a leaf, a stem, a flower, a root, a tuber, and a seed.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said plant part is a seed, and wherein 1.0×10 3 , 1.0×10 4 , 1.0×10 5 to about 1.0×10 7 , 1.0×10 8 , 1.0×10 9 , or 1.0×10 10 CFU of said Methylobacterium is applied to said seed.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein mycotoxin levels in said plant or plant part are reduced by at least 50%, at least 75%, at least 85%, or at least 95% relative to a plant part obtained from the control plant, plant part, or plant obtained therefrom.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said composition is an essentially dry product having 5% or less water content.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said plant is selected from the group consisting of a rice, soybean, peanut, tomato, wheat, corn, barley, millet, sorghum, oat, and rye plant.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant pathogenic fungus is a Rhizoctonia sp.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said plant or plant part is at least partially coated with said composition.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant is selected from the group consisting of a Brassica , alfalfa, sunflower, safflower, tobacco, potato, cotton, sweet potato, cassava, coffee, coconut, pineapple, citrus, cocoa, tea, banana, avocado, fig, guava, mango, olive, papaya, cashew, macadamia, almond, sugar beet, sugarcane, lettuce, green bean, lima bean, pea, cucurbit, ornamental, conifer and turfgrass plant.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the plant part is a plant seed.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the seed is from a cereal plant selected from the group consisting of a rice, wheat, corn, barley, millet, sorghum, oat, and rye plant.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the composition further comprises an additional active selected from the group consisting of an insecticide, a fungicide, a nematocide, a biopesticide, and a beneficial microbe.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the composition further comprises a pesticide selected from the group consisting of metalaxyl, ipconazole, and imidacloprid.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said plant is treated by applying said Methylobacterium as a spray or as a seed treatment.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein said disease is a foliar disease and wherein the plant is a corn, wheat or soybean plant.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein said disease is a foliar disease caused by a Septoria sp., or a Cercospora sp.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein said disease is white mold and said plant pathogenic fungus is a Sclerotinia sp.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein said plant pathogenic fungus is a Pythium sp.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant pathogenic fungus is a Septoria sp.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant pathogenic fungus is a Cercospora sp.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plant pathogenic fungus is a Fusarium sp.