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Dear Colleagues,

The section of the Agriculture journal “Crop Protection, Diseases, Pests, and Weeds” has always strived toward the publication high-quality of published papers. I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the results achieved to date.

The constant challenges faced by the agricultural sector regarding climate change, and the evolution of pesticide resistance, as well as the need to reduce the use of the latter, encourage us to continue along this path. As part of integrated pest management (pathogens, animal pests and weeds), particular attention has been paid to studies exploring innovative strategies of control in the context of sustainable agriculture.

This Special Issue aims to collect the most advanced studies in the field of crop protection, pest management, identification of pathogens, biological control, development of safe pesticides with novel mechanisms of action, studies of plant–microbe interactions, and more.

In this respect, in this Special Issue, multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary original papers and reviews will be collected. Contributions to this Special Issue are only accepted from the editorial board and scientists invited by the editorial board.

Dr. Anna Andolfi
Dr. Francesco Vinale
Guest Editors

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Keywords

integrated pest management
biological control
sustainable agriculture
environmental impact
climatic change and emerging diseases
eco-friendly pest control
plant–microbe interactions

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 1300 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Temperature and Wetness on Taphrina deformans Ascospore and Blastospore Germination: Disease Forecasting and Validation

Thomas Thomidis

and

Maria Paresidou

Agriculture 2023, 13(10), 1974; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13101974 - 11 Oct 2023

Viewed by 632

Abstract

Peach leaf curl is a fungal disease caused by Taphrina deformans, and it can severely affect the health and productivity of peach and nectarine trees (Prunus persica) if left unmanaged. This study was carried out to investigate the temperature and wetness conditions that affect the germination of blastospores and ascospores of local isolates of the fungus T. deformans. The results showed that the rate of both ascospore and blastospore germination was reduced as the temperature increased from 0 to 20 °C. A decrease in temperature from the range of 25 °C to 30 °C caused a reduction in the germination of conidia for both ascospores and blastospores. Ascospore and blastospore germination were totally inhibited at −3 and 35 °C. Under constant temperatures of 20 °C, the percentage of both ascospore and blastospore germination of T. deformans gradually increased as the wetness period increased from 9 to 15 h. However, there was no further increase in germination observed beyond the 15 h wetness period. Additionally, this study aimed to validate the predictive models of T. deformans, developed based on the favorable temperatures and leaf wetness durations, under the specific field conditions of Naoussa, Greece. The results indicate that while both the ascosporic and blastosporic models were capable of correctly predicting infection periods, there were differences in their predictions of infection risk. The ascosporic model predicted lower risk infection, which aligned well with the observed symptoms of the disease. In contrast, the blastosporic model predicted higher risk infection, but this did not match the actual intensity of the symptoms. Finally, this study also provided insights into the potential benefits of using predictive models to guide fungicide applications, potentially leading to more targeted and efficient disease management strategies for commercial peach orchards. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Crop Protection, Diseases, Pest and Weeds)

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