A 6‐year study was carried out to evaluate the accuracy of some models in estimating airborne ascospores of Venturia inaequalis. The proportion of the season’s ascospores trapped on each discharge event was compared with the proportion of mature ascospores, estimated by the New Hampshire model or by some related models. The models differed from each other in the degree‐day cumulation, accounting or not for the leaf litter wetness caused by rainfall or by deposition of atmospheric humidity. The New Hampshire model did not fit spore trappings well: 59% of the actual values fell outside the range of the estimates, and 83% of them were overestimates. The wide discrepancy between reality and estimates resulted from the effect of dryness: when many consecutive rainless days occurred, the proportion of ascospores trapped was constantly lower than the model estimates, due to a slowed spore maturation. The effect of dryness was evident during the greater part of the ascospore maturity season, irrespective of the proportion of the season’s ascospores that had just matured when the dry period began. Models accounting for leaf litter wetness significantly improved estimates. Therefore, in the Po Valley, the accuracy of the New Hampshire model can be improved by accumulating degree‐days only when leaf litter is wet.

A total of 586 natural wine yeasts, belonging to different genera, were tested for their antagonistic effect on fungal pathogens. A low percentage of yeast strains completely inhibited the pathogens and the biocontrol activity was found to be a strain characteristic and did not solely depend on species or genus. Among the antagonists, two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one of Zygosaccharomyces showed a broad spectrum of antagonistic activity against 10 fungal pathogens.

No abstract

U. S.

A system was elaborated to estimate the dynamics of primary inoculum of Venturia inaequalis in apple orchards. It separates the primary inoculum season into five periods with different risks: absent (ascospores not yet mature); potential (ascospores mature but not yet ready to be discharged); actual (ascospores can be discharged when favourable conditions occur); present (ascospores are airborne); exhausted (all ascospores have been ejected). These periods were determined by two mathematical models, which use meteorological parameters as driving variables. The first model estimates the development stage of the overwintering pseudothecia and then determines when the first pseudothecia contain pigmented and mature ascospores. A threshold of mature ascospores inside pseudothecia defines when the ascospores become ready for discharge. The second model estimates the proportion of the season's ascospores that are airborne on each discharging event, using temperature and leaf wetness, expressed as the degrees accumulated daily in the hours when leaves are wet. Estimates of absent and potential risk were verified by collecting data on the first ascospore discharge in the period 1991/1998 at Bologna and Modena (northern Italy), and they were always found to be accurate. To verify the estimates of actual, present and exhausted risk, the model outputs were compared with data collected by spore samplers at Modena and Bologna in 1997 and 1998: they were sufficiently accurate because the greatest part of the records from the spore sampler fell inside the confidence limits of the model.