In late summer 2019, a severe outbreak of fruit rot was observed in commercial ‘Pink Lady’ apple orchards (>20 ha in total) in the region Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy). The symptoms on the fruit ...

Apple (Malus domestica) is an important fruit crop in the Netherlands, with a total production of 418,000 tons in 2011. Symptoms of apple bitter rot were observed on apples of the cultivar ‘Golden Delicious’ in the Netherlands in July 2013 after 9 months of storage in a packing house at controlled atmosphere. Lesions were round, 1 to 5 cm in diameter, grey and dry with acervuli, producing orange spore masses in concentric rings. Fruit were rinsed with sterile water, and lesions were sprayed with 70% ethanol until droplet runoff. The skin was removed aseptically with a scalpel, and tissue under the lesion was isolated and placed onto Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). The PDA plates were incubated at 20°C in the dark, and single spore isolates were propagated on PDA. The isolates were identified as Colletotrichum sp. based on culture morphology, having light grey to pale orange coloured mycelium and, when viewed from the reverse side, the color ranged from pink to reddish orange. The cultures carried yellowish sp...

Pear (Pyrus communis) is an important fruit crop in the Netherlands. Symptoms of side rot disease of pear fruits were first observed in 2008 on cv ‘Conference’ in storage in the Netherlands. Typical round to oval, dark-brown and slightly sunken spots (size 0.5 to 1.0 cm in diameter) appear after six or more months of cold storage under controlled atmosphere. Lesions of rinsed pears were sprayed with 70% ethanol and tissue under the lesion was placed onto Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) at 20°C in the dark. Colonies obtained from single spores produced on PDA were flat, felty and cottony in the middle, with smooth margins, with an even edge and varying in colour from white turning to grey/black-olivaceous. Under UV-light ellipsoid or elongate conidia were produced (2.2-2.3 μm × 4.9-6.5 μm). Both cultural and morphological characteristics of the pathogen were similar to those described for Cadophora sp. (Spadaro et al. 2011). Three representative isolates (PPO 11-1228; PPO 24-1234; PPO 107-1267) were sequenced u...

Apple (Malus domestica) is an important fruit crop in the Netherlands, with a total production of 353,000 tons in 2014. ‘Elstar’ is the main apple cultivar that occupies 40% of the total apple production area in the Netherlands. Symptoms of apple wet core rot were observed on apples of the cultivar ‘Elstar’ in the Netherlands in January to March 2013 after 4-6 months of storage in different packing houses at controlled atmosphere. The disease was present in a large number of lots harvested at orchards from different locations across the Netherlands, and disease incidences up to 25% were recorded. The disease was characterized by light-brown wet rot, initially developing in the core of the apple and subsequently spreading into the surrounding cortex, often with a white to rose-reddish mycelium. Apples from five lots with wet core infections as surveyed in initial inspections were transported to the laboratory (four apples per lot; 20 in total), rinsed with sterile water, sprayed with 70% ethanol until drop...

Pear (Pyrus communis) is an important fruit crop in the Netherlands, with a total production of 349,000 tons in 2014, and ‘Conference’ is the main pear cultivar that occupies 75% of the total pear production area. In the Netherlands, pears are kept in controlled atmosphere cold storage up to 11 months after harvest. Occasionally, storage rots are observed when storage crates are contaminated with orchard soil. In a storage trial (2012-2013), boxes with ‘Conference’ pears were amended with soil particles from the same orchard from which the pears were harvested (four orchards), and stored for 11 months. Boxes without amended soil were included as controls. In contrast to the control boxes, up to 15% of the pears stored in boxes with soil particles showed typical rot symptoms (lesions) of an unknown causal agent. The lesions showed brown and watery circular necrosis, were slightly sunken, and displayed whitish to yellowish mycelia covering the lesions. To isolate the causal agent, fruit were rinsed with ste...