Efficacy of postharvest treatments by nebulisation of biological control organisms against Botrytis cinerea fruit rot on pear

Abstract: Storage diseases of pome fruits are caused by different fungal species. Disease management to control storage diseases includes several treatments with different fungicides in the weeks prior to harvest. However, residues on fruits become more and more a public and governmental concern. In order to reduce the chemical residue on fruits to a minimum, more research is done on alternative disease management. In this respect, in 2013, a project on ‘Nebulisation of biological control organisms in cold storage rooms to control storage diseases’, which is funded by Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (vlaio), has started at the pcfruit institute in collaboration with ILVO and the Catholic University of Leuven. Here the efficacy of several biological control organisms (BCOs), which were applied through specific atomization in the cold storage room, was examined against storage diseases. Two groups of fungal pathogens causing storage diseases were monitored. The first comprises the latent fruit rot pathogen, Neofabraea spp. The second are the wound pathogens (Botrytis cinerea, Monilinia spp., Penicillium spp.) that penetrate the fruits through accidental wounds, for example during picking. However, not only the efficacy of the BCOs is important but also the homogeneous distribution of the compounds in the cold storage room. The results of these trials will be presented.