Brown rot of stone fruits on the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas. I. Aetiology of the disease in canning peaches

Abstract

In a typical season brown rot development in canning peaches on the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Areas was found to follow a basic pattern. There is little or no blossom blight or post-blossom infection. Infection of fruit is first seen in January and increases until harvest. Infections of fruit during the preharvest period are almost all initiated in injuries. Damage caused by larvae of the oriental fruit moth is the most important form of fruit injury. Infections of injured immature fruits may occur in dry weather and cannot be prevented by the application of fungicides. These injured rotting fruits produce inoculum which can start epiphytotics if rain falls when the fruit is ripe. Blighted blossoms are usually unimportant as inoculum sources at this stage, but they are important links in the infection chain since they can provide inoculum for the first infections of injured fruits. Dried fruit beetles were found to be vectors during the preharvest build-up of the disease, and there was some evidence that they may carry inoculum to blossoms in spring. Quiescent and latent fruit infections initiated in spring were noted, but they are thought to have little overall significance in the aetiology of the disease. Some infections occurring during the ripening period may exhibit latency. The implications of these findings for disease control and their relevance to brown rot aetiology in other, more humid fruit-growing areas are discussed.

Incidence of Latent Infection of Immature Peach Fruit byMonilinia fructicolaand Relationship to Brown Rot in Georgia

“…Although an association between rainfall and infection by M. fructicola has been noted previously (13,15,24), cumulative rainfall or rainfall frequency did not correlate with fruit rot in the present study, regardless of the period over which rainfall data were summarized (Table 3). Similar results were reported by Tamm and Flückiger (26), who studied blossom blight caused by M. laxa in sweet cherry.…”

“…The incidence of fruit surface contamination was sporadic in most other trials (Fig. The association between insect wounding and fruit rot is well documented (13,24,27). Conidial contamination was, however, detected frequently on fruit collected in the unmanaged Peach County orchard (Fig.…”

Phenology of Carpophilus spp. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in Stone Fruit Orchards as Determined by Pheromone Trapping: Implications for Prediction of Crop Damage

“…in southern New South Wales is thought to occur as nonreproductive adults (James et al , 1995b) and beetles trapped during the regular spring peak in flight activity (Kable 1969;James et al 1993James et al , 1994James et al , 1995a) are considered to be overwintered adults. The abundance of beetles at this time is presumably influenced by population development and size in the previous summer-autumn and overwintering survival.…”

Potential to reduce the spatial density of attract and kill traps required for effective control of Carpophilus spp. (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in stone fruit in Australia

“…They also play an important role in transferring the spores of brown rot (Monilinia spp.) in stone fruit (Kable 1969). They are serious pests of stone fruits, cherries and some berries in Australia (James et al 1996(James et al , 1997Hossain et al 2006Hossain et al , 2008 destroying $20-50 m of crop in Victoria alone.…”