New research on cranberry carbonaceous rot

25/07/2019

Researchers at the IFAPA Las Torres Center, the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (Tucumán, Argentina) and the Department of Agroforestry Sciences of the University of Seville have detected carbon rot for the first time affecting blueberry plants in the province of Huelva.Macrophomina phaseolina, the causative agent of this disease, is a pathogen of ubiquitous soil and with a wide range of hosts, which affects more than 500 cultivated and wild species, of great longevity and with highly competitive saprophytic capacity. The disease is known as carbonaceous rot, due to the discoloration or blackening of the stems and roots due to the presence of the fungus in the tissues and the accumulation of microsclerotia, of black color, that parasitize the host tissues.

Huelva is the first producer of red fruits in Europe, and blueberry cultivation was introduced in the early 90 as an alternative to strawberry cultivation. From 2011 to 2018, the area dedicated to this crop has increased from 777 to 3000 ha. Symptomatic plants have been detected in Gibraleón and Moguer, and the virulence of isolates of the pathogen from soils where strawberry is grown has been confirmed, which implies that producers have to take special precaution and knowledge of the state of the soil, when replacing crops of strawberry by blueberry crops.

Publication link: “First Report of Charcoal Rot, caused by Macrophomina phaseolina, on Blueberry in Southwestern in Spain ”.

Source

Juntadeandalucia