Botrytis
Botrytis-infected strawberry
Botrytis is a widespread fungal phytopathogen that causes grey mould on most fruits and vegetables often leading to the rapid loss of commercially viable crops.
The average losses from affected crops account for 20% of the total harvest, costing in the region of 10-100 billion euros worldwide.
Eden's encapsulated terpene products have antifungal activity and they confer several advantages over existing chemical anti-Botrytis treatments:
- The non-toxic nature of Eden products allows late pre-harvest application, and also post-harvest application, for the optimum protection of crops
- Resistance of Botrytis to chemical fungicides is an increasing problem, but the antimicrobial activity of Eden products is such that the predicted risk of resistance is low
- Eden products are competitively priced compared with other commonly used fungicides
Eden Research and Development – Field Trials
Vineyard field trials were designed to regulatory standards to assess both the protective and curative efficacy of Eden product 3AEY application, including analysis of crop safety and the chemistry of taint and residues in treated grape juice and wine. Test sites were located in Southern Europe.
Protective treatment efficacy
A mixture of 3AEY (200 mL per hectolitre) and the surfactant Silwet® L77 (United Agri Products; 50 mL/hL) compared well with two standard anti-Botrytis fungicides, Rovral® and Scala® (used at 150 g/hL and 200 mL/hL, respectively; both developed by Bayer CropScience; see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Average protective efficacy of grapevine treatments against Botrytis - data from 13 separate trials performed in 2006 and 2007 at sites in Southern Europe
- The average protective efficacy using data from 13 trials was 88% for the 3AEY mixture, and 89% and 87% for Rovral® and Scala®, respectively (Figure 1).
- Further analysis showed that disease incidence was reduced by an average 64% following 3AEY/Silwet treatment, compared with a 58% reduction by both Rovral® and Scala®.
Curative treatment efficacy
Botrytis disease control on infected grapes was assessed at 5 trial sites, again located in Southern Europe.
Efficacy data indicated that Eden product 3AEY performed better than Rovral® and Scala®, which is due to the enhanced flexibility of 3AEY application timing. In this case, grapes were sprayed up to 1 week prior to crop harvest, keeping Botrytis levels under control for longer.
Similar results were obtained following the analysis of disease incidence in untreated and treated grapevine plots at the 5 test locations. Compared with untreated plots, 3AEY reduced disease incidence by an average 78%, a greater reduction than that observed for Rovral® and Scala® (64% and 68%, respectively).
- Based on successful field trials, Eden is seeking regulatory approval for the use of product 3AEY as an anti-Botrytis treatment for use at a short pre-harvest interval, which will offer the unique advantage of late application for those growers suffering from Botrytis disease close to crop harvest.
- Eden also intends to offer product 3AEY for use on other soft fruits and leafy vegetables that can suffer from Botrytis rot. In these cases, it is proposed that 3AEY is suitable for post-harvest application, therefore protecting produce in the chain from harvest to plate.
- Eden is currently funding the development of a formulation to be used for distributing encapsulated terpene products by ‘fogging', which would be convenient for application in greenhouses and crop storage facilities.
- Preliminary trials conducted on strawberries, lettuce and sweet peppers have been encouraging and Eden plans to continue testing geographically by agro-climatic zone.
For further detailed information on Eden’s products, please contact John Edmonds at johne@edenresearch.com