Mechanical and physical control in apple orchards as preventative fungal disease management

In this minreview, mechanical and physical control against apple fungal diseases among non-chemical control approaches were summarized. This overview listed five groups of mechanical and physical control methods:  pruning, removal of inoculum sources, shredding of leaf litter, burying of inoculum sources and flaming of leaf litter. These methods were shown to reduce succesfully infection potential of inoculum sources in orchards and these non-chemical control measures are one of the most essential approaches for preventative fungal disease management. However, most of these methods are not widely spread in the apple-growing practice due to relatively low control efficacy, medium to high labour costs and/or time limits during the season

Preliminary study on micro area based spatial distribution of powdery mildew in an organic apple orchard

In this study, the objective was to report a preliminary study on micro area based spatial distribution of powdery mildew in anorganic apple orchard. Results showed that number of symptomatic plant part ranged between 11 and 20 on shoot and between 9 and 24 onfruit. Number of asymptomatic plant part ranged between 85 and 109 on shoot and between 133 and 206 on fruit. Disease incidence rangedbetween 13.8 and 17.6% on shoot and between 9.1 and 11.3% on fruit. Disease aggregation index ranged between 0.098 and 0.228 on shootand between 0.043 and 0.108 on fruit. One of the four trees showed significant within canopy aggregation of disease for shoot powderymildew symptoms in both years. For leaf powdery mildew, all tree exhibited random patterns in both years

Harvest and postharvest brown rot of fruit in relation to early latent infection caused by Monilinia spp. in Hungary

In this study, the effect of early latent infection caused by Monilina spp. on harvest and postharvest brown rot of sour cherry and peach was investigated. Two field experiments were performed in commercial orchards located at Eperjeske on sour cherry and at Siófok on peach in 2013 and 2014 in order to study the possible relationship between the incidence of early latent infection caused by Monilinia spp. and the incidence of harvest and postharvest brown rot. No latent infection was recorded at popcorn phanological stage of the trees at both locations. The maximum incidence was detected during the pit hardening period. There was a positive  correlation between the incidence of latent infection and harvest or postharvest brown rot. The average  incidence of latent infection during the crop season explained approximatelly 20% of the total variation in the incidence of postharvest brown rot

Preliminary study on micro area based spatial distribution of powdery mildew in an organic apple orchard

In this study, the objective was to report a preliminary study on micro area based spatial distribution of powdery mildew in an organic apple orchard. Results showed that number of symptomatic plant part ranged between 11 and 20 on shoot and between 9 and 24 on fruit. Number of asymptomatic plant part ranged between 85 and 109 on shoot and between 133 and 206 on fruit. Disease incidence ranged between 13.8 and 17.6% on shoot and between 9.1 and 11.3% on fruit. Disease aggregation index ranged between 0.098 and 0.228 on shoot and between 0.043 and 0.108 on fruit. One of the four trees showed significant within canopy aggregation of disease for shoot powdery mildew symptoms in both years. For leaf powdery mildew, all tree exhibited random patterns in both years

Apple powdery mildew caused by Podosphaera leucotricha: some aspects of disease management

Apple powdery mildew (Podoshphaera leucorticha) occurs wherever apples are grown. One of the most important fungal disease of apple which causing severe econimic loss on susceptible apple cultivars. This review focuses on the control of apple powdery mildew. The first part of the study provides details of novel aspects of non-chemical control approaches, including agronomic measures, mechanical and biological control options as well as essential features of apple cultivar resistance. After this, developments in chemical control options are described sperately for integrated and organic apple orchards

Apple powdery mildew caused by Podosphaera leucotricha: some aspects of disease management

Apple powdery mildew (Podoshphaera leucorticha) occurs wherever apples are grown. One of the most important fungal diseaseof apple which causing severe econimic loss on susceptible apple cultivars. This review focuses on the control of apple powdery mildew. Thefirst part of the study provides details of novel aspects of non-chemical control approaches, including agronomic measures, mechanical andbiological control options as well as essential features of apple cultivar resistance. After this, developments in chemical control options aredescribed sperately for integrated and organic apple orchards

Disease warning models for brown rot fungi of fruit crops

In this review, disease warning models for brown rot fungi, including Monilinia fructigena, M. laxa and M. fructicola, weresummarized. Few studies have been made to relate epidemiology and disease warning in brown rot infection caused by M. fructicola and M.laxa in order to predict infections or develop decision support models for fungicide applications during the growing season. More recently adisease warning model and a decision support system were also performed for M. fructigena for organic apple orchards. This review gives anoverview on some details of the above disease warning models and decision support system

Disease incidence of Monilinia fructigena coupled with codling moth damage and mechanical injury in an organic apple orchard

In a two-year-study, disease incidence of Monilinia fructigena were quatified and the importance of certain fruit wounding agents was determined. The first infected fruits were observed at the beginning of August in 2011 and 2012. Disease development was continuous until fruit harvest in both years. Pre-harvest yield loss caused by M. fructigena amounted on average 26.3% in 2011 and 40.4% in 2012 by fruit harvest. All infected fruits were injured mainly by mechanical injury factors and codling moth (Cydia pomonella). In this study, the most important wounding agents were codling moth and mechanical injury factors in organic apple orchards. In both years, our results showed that 65-75% of the infected fruits were damaged by codling moth in organic apple production. Moreover, 5-15% of the infected fruits were mechanically injured in the two years. Our results indicated that most of the damaged fruits fell on the orchard floor before harvest and they became an important secondary inoculum source of M. fructigena. Biological and practical implications of the results are discussed

Harvest and postharvest brown rot of fruit in relation to early latent infection caused by Monilinia spp. in Hungary

In this study, the effect of early latent infection caused by Monilina spp. on harvest and postharvest brown rot of sour cherry andpeach was investigated. Two field experiments were performed in commercial orchards located at Eperjeske on sour cherry and at Siófokon peach in 2013 and 2014 in order to study the possible relationship between the incidence of early latent infection caused by Moniliniaspp. and the incidence of harvest and postharvest brown rot. No latent infection was recorded at popcorn phanological stage of the treesat both locations. The maximum incidence was detected during the pit hardening period. There was a positive correlation between theincidence of latent infection and harvest or postharvest brown rot. The average incidence of latent infection during the crop season explainedapproximatelly 20% of the total variation in the incidence of postharvest brown rot

Epidemiology of brown rot on two apple cultivars in an organic apple orchard

In a two-year-study, the temporal development of brown rot (Monilinia fructigena) on fruits was analysed in an organic apple orchard on an early (Prima) and one late (Idared) maturing cultivars at Debrecen-Józsa in Hungary. Out of five mathematical functions (linear, exponential, three-parameter logistic, Gompertz, Bertalanffy-Mitscherlich), the three-parameter logistic function gave the best fit to brown rot incidence of all cultivars in both years. Disease progress started at the end of June for cv. Prima and at the end of July for cv. Idared, then disease increased continuously from 6-8 weeks up to harvest in all cultivars. Descriptive disease variates derived from the three-parameter logistic function were used to analyse disease progress. These were: Yf, the final disease incidence; Y55, fruit incidence at day 55; Y95, fruit incidence at day 95; b and q, the relative and the absolute rate of disease progress, respectively; T1.5, the time when disease incidence reaches 1.5 %; M, the inflection point and AUDPC, area under disease progress curve. Descriptive disease variates were significantly different (P<0.05) for cv. Prima compared to cv. Idared, except for the relative and absolute rate of disease increase, b and q, respectively. The largest differences among cultivars were in the values of the AUDPC. Disease progress curves and descriptive disease variates were presented and the practical implications of the results were discussed