Control de enfermedades de postcosecha del melocoton

Las enfermedades de postcosecha, es decir, aquellas que afectan a los frutos desde que son recolectados hasta que llegan al consumidor, provocan en todo el mundo pérdidas económicas importantes en el sector del melocotón y de la fruta de hueso en general. La tendencia actual es restringir el nombre de enfermedades a las que son de origen parasitario, producidas por un organismo vivo, y designar como alteraciones o desórdenes a los problemas de origen abiótico o fisiológico. En postcosecha de melocotón y de fruta fresca en general, la mayoría de los agentes patógenos causantes de enfermedades son hongos filamentosos y la sintomatología que producen en los frutos son las podredumbres, término que se utiliza para nombrar de forma común a las propias enfermedades

Non-Polluting Chemical Approaches to Control Citrus Postharvest Diseases

Commercial cultivars of Citrus spp. (Rutaceae), including oranges, mandarins or tangerines, grapefruits, lemons, and limes are the most widely produced fruits in the world. China, Brazil, and the United States (USA) lead the global production, which is mainly devoted to juice extraction, but Spain is the leading country for exports of fresh entire fruit for direct consumption. Among postharvest losses of fresh fruit, those of pathological origin are especially important because whole export shipments are often rejected by wholesale buyers when they find rotten fruits, even at low proportions. In these cases, the producer is also charged for the transport and handling costs [1]

Mini-review: Heat treatments for the control of citrus postharvest green mold caused by Penicillium digitatum

Postharvest green mold, caused by the pathogen Penicillium digitatum (Pers.:Fr.) Sacc., is the most economically important postharvest disease of citrus fruits in Spain, areas with Mediterranean climate, and citrus production areas worldwide characterized by low summer rainfall. Economic losses due to this disease have been typically reduced through the application of synthetic chemical fungicides such as imazalil or thiabendazole. However, human health risks and environmental contamination associated with chemical residues and the proliferation of resistant strains of the pathogen are major problems associated with the use of these chemicals. There is, therefore, an increasing need to find and implement alternative antifungal postharvest treatments as part of integrated management programs for disease control. Among alternative physical decay control methods, heat treatments are the most common and popular because they are relatively effective, simple, cheap, and easy to apply and combine with other control systems. In this article, research work based on the evaluation of heat treatments used alone or in combination with other physical, chemical, or biological methods for the control of citrus green mold is reviewed. The most important postharvest heat treatments that have been tested against P. digitatum on fresh citrus fruits are curing, hot water dips (HWD), and hot water rinsing and brushing (HWRB). Typical citrus curing employs exposure of fruit for 2- 3 days to an air atmosphere heated to temperatures higher than 30°C at relative humidity higher than 90%. HWD are generally applied as relatively brief immersions (1-5 min) in water heated to 40-55 °C. HWRB consists basically in packingline machinery that treats the fruit by the application of hot water over rotating brushes at a relatively high temperature (55-65 °C) for a short time (10-60 s). Efficacy results, general performance, modes of action, limitations, advantages and disadvantages, and commercial feasibility of these heat treatments are discussed

El control de las enfermedades de poscosecha y las alternativas a los fungicidas químicos convencionales

Las pérdidas económicas ocasionadas por las patologías de poscosecha constituyen uno de los principales problemas del sector de los cítricos en España. La gran mayoría de las enfermedades que se producen desde que los frutos son recolectados hasta que llegan al consumidor son debidas a hongos patógenos causantes de podredumbres. Las pérdidas provocadas por las enfermedades son muy variables y dependen del área productora, la especie y el cultivar, la edad y el estado de los árboles, las condiciones climatológicas durante toda la campaña, la época y la forma de recolección, el manejo de los frutos en poscosecha, las condiciones de almacenamiento y el mercado de destino. En general, las enfermedades de poscosecha de los cítricos se clasifican en dos grupos diferentes según el momento predominante de la infección: a) enfermedades causadas por infecciones que tienen lugar antes de la cosecha y permanecen latentes o inactivas hasta después de la recolección y b) enfermedades causadas por infecciones que tienen lugar durante o después de la cosecha. Los hongos causantes de las primeras se denominan genéricamente patógenos latentes o quiescentes y los que originan las segundas son los llamados patógenos de herida

Evaluation of hot water and GRAS salt solutions for the control of postharvest gray and green molds of pomegranate fruit

Gray and green molds, caused by the fungi Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium spp., respectively, are among the most important postharvest diseases of pomegranate fruit in Spain. Although the synthetic fungicide fludioxonil is allowed for postharvest use since 2019, disease control methods alternative to agrochemicals are preferred, especially in pomegranate export markets, due to health and environmental issues associated with chemical residues. In this work, the disease control ability of dips in hot water (20, 40, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, and 75 ºC) or aqueous solutions of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) salts (PS, potassium sorbate; SC, sodium carbonate; SBC, sodium bicarbonate; SB, sodium benzoate; all at 3% (w/v)) was evaluated using ‘Mollar de Elche’ pomegranates artificially inoculated with the pathogens B. cinerea or P. sclerotiorum