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Integrated Plant Protection in Fruit Crops

Subgroup Pome Fruit Diseases


IOBC-WPRS Bulletin Vol. 84, 2012
pp. 157-161

Carbonates for apple scab control


M. Hinze and Stefan Kunz
Bio-Protect GmbH, Lohnerhofstr.7, 78467 Konstanz, Germany
www.bio-protect.de
e-mail: malin.hinze@bio-protect.de
Abstract: Apple scab is caused by Venturia inaequalis. As the fungus developed resistance against
demethylation inhibitors and anilinopyrimidines, these curative fungicides cannot be used anymore in
pome fruit production in many regions. As a result, fruit growers can only use protective agents for
apple scab control. We tested different substances in the greenhouse for their curative efficacy and
some promising substances could be identified. Carbonates in different formulations reduced the apple
scab incidence after curative application clearly, but had no protective effects. Mixtures of protective
fungicides with Omni Protect (a.i. potassium carbonate) sprayed protectively or curatively could
achieve a symptom reduction up to 97%. Omni Protect controlled apple scab populations resistant to
demethylation inhibitors and anilinopyrimidines.
Key words: Apple scab, Venturia inaequalis, curative treatment, carbonate, resistance, demethylation
inhibitors, anilinopyrimidines

Introduction
Apple scab, caused by Venturia inaequalis (Cooke) G. Wint., is the most important apple
disease, causing economic losses in almost all apple production areas. Its significance is
indicated by the fact that up to 20 fungicide treatments are applied per season to control the
disease. Conditions for infections by V. inaequalis are well known and simulation models
predict ascospore release and the infection process based on weather data and weather
forecast.
Due to increasing resistance against curative active agents like demethylation inhibitors
(DMI) or anilinopyrimidines (AP) (Kunz et al., 1997; Scheer and Trautmann, 2008), in most
growing regions in Europe, apple scab control is more and more focussed on the usage of
protective fungicides or treatments into the germination period of the scab fungus. These
treatments during germination are difficult to schedule as the time period for the application is
often short and in most cases these sprays have to be done during rainfall and at night.
Furthermore there are many unnecessary protective treatments by reason that weather
forecasts are not reliable and predicted infection conditions do not occur.
The fact that carbonates showed high efficiency in apple scab control after curative
applications in green house trials ( Jamar et al., 2007; Hinze and Kunz, 2010), leads to the
question if carbonates can be implemented into spray strategies in Integrated Pest
Management (IPM).

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Material and methods


Apple trees
Potted apple trees of the cultivar Jonagold, grafted on M9 or M26 rootstocks, were kept in a
greenhouse. The three youngest completely unfolded leaves of the shoots were spray
inoculated.
Apple scab conidia
The scab population used routinely originated from an apple orchard in Konstanz (variety
Jonagold) and was never treated with fungicides. Leaves were collected in 2006. DMI and AP
resistant scab populations originated from a commercial orchard in the apple growing area
around Lake of Constance with several years of fungicide history. Leaves were collected in
2005. The scab populations were propagated in the greenhouse without selection pressure.
Scabbed leaves were stored at -80C. To prepare the inoculum suspension, leaves with
conidia were thawed and shaken in tap water (Kunz et al., 2008).
Inoculation and treatments
A suspension with 105 conidia per ml was sprayed on the three youngest unfolded leaves of
every apple shoot until run off and subsequently incubated at 18C to 23C and 100% relative
humidity for 20 hours (h) in the dark. High humidity was ensured by using a humidifier. The
plants were subsequently kept under greenhouse conditions. Test products were suspended in
the recommended application rate in tap water and sprayed onto the dry test plants until run
off 18h before inoculation (protective or for rain fastness testing) or 24 or 48h after
inoculation (curative). Rainfall was simulated with a spray nozzle placed 2m above the plants,
and its amount was measured with a pluviometer placed between the pots. To test the rain
fastness of a product, plants were irrigated 18h after application with 30l/m2 of water, and
were inoculated consecutively (Kunz et al., 2008).
Evaluation
Sixteen to 21 days after inoculation, the disease incidence for each shoot was calculated as the
average of the proportion of the diseased leaf area of the three youngest inoculated leaves
(Kunz et al., 1997). The average of the diseased leaf area of 10 shoots per treatment was
calculated. The efficiency of the tested compound was calculated by comparing the disease
incidence with the untreated control according to Abbott (Abbott, 1925). Mean incidence for
the different treatments were statistically compared after square root transformation using
Tukey`s Multiple Comparison Test (p < 0.05).

Results and discussion


A survey of 23 products on curative action against apple scab in greenhouse trials showed
good efficiencies for carbonates in different formulations. Of the carbonates tested, Omni
Protect (potassium carbonate) performed best (Hinze and Kunz, 2010). In this study trials
were therefore initiated to integrate Omni Protect into spray schedules of IPM and it was
tested for protective efficiency against apple scab in comparison to Delan MWG and Malvin
WG (Figure 1).
Protective treatments with Omni Protect showed little efficiency and it had no good
rainfastness (Figure 1). However, the combination with protective fungicides, like Delan
MWG (dithianon) or Malvin WG (captan) proved that Omni Protect has no negative influence

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on the protective efficacy of these agents (Figure 1), and all mixtures had a good rainfastness.
The reduction of scab symptoms compared to the untreated control was significant.

40
without rain
30mm rain
Efficiency (%):

Scab incidence (%)

30

66

31

99

99

97

99

98

98

abc

ab

cd

cd

cd

bcd abcd

100

100

20

10

a
0
untreated

Omni Protect

Omni Protect +
Delan
MWG

Omni Protect +
Malvin WG

Delan
MWG

Malvin WG

Figure 1: Scab incidence on leaves of potted apple trees after artificial inoculation with
V. inaequalis conidia and preventive treatments with Omni Protect, protective fungicides or
mixtures thereof. Protective application, 18h before inoculation and rain stability, tested with
30mm rain 17h after spraying. Different letters show significant differences in Tukey`s
Multiple Comparison Test (p < 0.05) after square root transformation (variances
homogeneous; N = 10). Application rates: Delan (0.05%), Malvin WG (0.125%), Merpan 50
(0.125%), wettable sulphur (0.25%), Omni Protect (0.5%).
The protective fungicides Delan MWG and Merpan 50 had no curative activity (Figure
2). Spraying a tank mixture of a protective fungicide with Omni Protect, the scab symptoms
could be reduced significantly by 92-94% compared to an untreated control with a scab
incidence of 55% (Figure 2). Omni Protect as stand alone treatment had an efficiency of 93%
when applied after the infection. DMI and AP fungicides had a high efficacy against wild type
populations of apple scab (Kunz et al., 1997; Kunz et al., 1998) but resistance to these two
fungicidal groups developed in many apple growing regions. The DMIs Benocap and Score
as well as the AP Chorus did not reduce scab incidence significantly on leaves inoculated with
a scab population resistant to DMI and AP (Figure 3). Syllit, although described as a curative
fungicide (Palm and Kruse, 2010), had no curative efficacy in our trials (Figure 3). The
efficacy of Syllit, Chorus, Benocap or Score could be increased significantly when they were
deployed in a tank mixture with Omni Protect as curative treatments.
The experiments showed that the curative effect of potassium carbonate against apple
scab is an interesting brick in the apple scab control strategy. If the timing of applications into
the germination phase of ascospores is not possible, due to a lack of time or inaccessibility of
the orchard, carbonates could be applied the next day. If infection periods come up in short
intervals, mixtures of carbonates and protective fungicides reduce the total number of
applications.

160

60
Efficiency (%):

Scab incidence (%)

50
93

93

92

94

17

63

Delan
MWG

Merpan 50

wettable
sulphur

40
30
20
10
a

untreated

Omni Protect Omni Protect + Omni Protect + Omni Protect +


Delan
Merpan 50
NS Stulln
MWG

Figure 2: Scab incidence on leaves of potted apple trees after artificial inoculation with
V. inaequalis conidia and curative treatments with Omni Protect, protective fungicides or
mixtures thereof. Curative application 24h after inoculation with Venturia inaequalis.
Different letters show significant differences in Tukey`s Multiple Comparison Test (p < 0.05)
after square root transformation (variances homogeneous; N = 10). Application rates: Delan
(0.05%), Malvin WG (0.125%), Merpan 50 (0.125%), wettable sulphur (0.25%), Omni
Protect (0.5%).

40

Scab incidence [%]

30

20

10

ab

bc

bc

abc

Figure 3: Scab incidence on leaves of potted apple trees after artificial inoculation with
V. inaequalis conidia resistant to AP and SBI after curative treatments with Omni Protect,
curative fungicides or mixtures thereof. Different letters show significant differences in
Tukey`s Multiple Comparison Test (p < 0.05) after square root transformation (variances
homogeneous; N = 10). Application rates: Syllit (0.13%), Chorus (0.03%), Benocap
(0.0125%), Score (0.015%), Omni Protect (0.5%).

161

If unexpected rain events lead to infection conditions and no spray cover was present on
the leaves, curative treatments with carbonates will prevent scab infection.
The usage of carbonates in apple scab management can reduce the number of
applications against apple scab reducing costs and minimizing chemical input into the
environment. Carbonate containing products are also able to close the resistance gap when
sprayed in combination with curative fungicides. First field trials validated these greenhouse
results (Hinze and Kunz, 2010).

Acknowledgements
The experiments were partly funded by the AiF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller
Forschungsvereinigungen "Otto von Guericke" e.V.) and the BL (Bundesprogramm
kologischer Landbau). We thank them, all companies for putting the preparations on our
disposal, and the University of Konstanz for providing the greenhouse facilities.

References
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