Biological control of fruit rots on strawberry and grape by BOTRY-Zen

Abstract

Fruit rots are some of the most important diseases of grape and strawberry. With recent public concern regarding pesticide residues on fruit, there is a need for alternative disease management practices that will reduce the risk to consumers. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the commercial product BOTRY-Zen (active ingredient Ulocladium oudemansii [U3 strain]) to control strawberry and grape fruit rots. BOTRY-Zen at 6 g/L reduced significantly the percentage of rotted fruit in comparison with the untreated control. However, its effectiveness was significantly less than that of the fungicide Switch 25/37.5 WG (fludioxonil: cyprodinil) at a rate of 1 g/L (recommended by producer). There was no significant difference between the BOTRY-Zen at rate of 4 g/L and untreated plants. The results of this study showed that the commercial product BOTRY-Zen, at 6 g/L, could be a useful tool to control fruit rots of strawberry and grape in biological fruit production systems.

Comparative Performance of Reduced-risk Fungicides and Biorational Products in Management of Postharvest Botrytis Blight on Bigleaf Hydrangea Cut Flowers

“…Another biocontrol agent, U. oudemansii strain U3 (BW165N; BioWorks, Victor, NY), showed inconsistent performance in reducing the postharvest botrytis blight disease severity and disease progress as well as in maintaining postharvest vase life. This finding contradicts previous work (Calvo-Garrido et al, 2014;Thomidis et al, 2015), where applications of U. oudemansii strain U3 substantially reduced botrytis blight incidence and disease severity in grape and strawberry. Time for establishment of biological control agents on host tissue before the pathogen is crucial for proper disease suppression.…”

Biocontrol and Biostimulant Effect of a Fungal-Derived Extract in Commercial Varieties of Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.)

“…Many BCAs of different natures have been reported to control grey mould in postharvest strawberries during storage [3,4,15,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]43,44] . In general, these BCAs showed a significant reduction in the incidence and symptoms of grey mould in storage strawberries.…”

“…Novel postharvest treatments of strawberries have been suggested to prevent B. cinerea infection during storage [6,16] . Examples of different kinds of BCAs that efficiently control B. cinerea in postharvest strawberries include the application of living microbes, such as bacteria of the Bacillus genera [7,8,17] , the yeast Aureobasidium pullulans [18,19] , the marine yeast Sporidiobolus pararoseus [20] , the filamentous ascomycete Ulocladium atrum [21] , the fungus Beauveria bassiana [18] , the commercial product BOTRY-Zen, with Ulocladium oudemansii U3 strain as the active ingredient [22] , and many others. Other techniques use different biological compounds to produce edible coatings that protect against B. cinerea and prevent water loss, such as silk fibroin [23] , methylcellulose [24] , chitosan [7,25,26] , modified chitosan [27] , and chitosan enriched with turmeric and green tea extracts [28] .…”

Microbial pesticides – challenges and future perspectives for testing and safety assessment with respect to human health

“…Fungi are not only used against insects, but also as biofungicides, bionematicides, or bioherbicides. Important biocontrol fungi comprise for example Aureobasidium pullulans , Candida oleophila, Coniothyrium minitans, Duddingtonia flagrans, Gliocladium and Clonostachys strains , Myrothecium verrucaria, as well as different species of the genus Trichoderma, and Ulocladium oudemansii [ 9 , 59 – 66 ]. These organisms are usually used as preventive treatments in the field or in greenhouses and are applied to soil, the seeds, or sprayed in the phyllosphere.…”