Articles
Can dynamic controlled atmosphere help reduce postharvest diseases of pome fruit?
Article number
1396_34
Pages
249 – 254
Language
English
Abstract
Washington State (WA) provides nearly 100% of organic apples grown in the USA and makes up to 20% of the state apple production.
While the semi-arid climate of central WA allows growing organic fruit with minimum impact of biotic stresses, storing organic fruit is a challenge with postharvest diseases being the number one limitation.
After 5 months of storage, an organic packer can lose up to 50% of organic fruit to diseases.
Currently, there are no effective postharvest bio-fungicides available for postharvest application and decays are managed by preharvest applications of some organic materials and postharvest sanitation.
Dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA) is a new approach used by organic packers specially, to extend the shelf life of organic fruit and reduce physiological disorders and DCA is increasingly used in the US Pacific Northwest (PNW). The ability of the microorganisms, especially, fungi that infect fruit and cause postharvest diseases, to grow and thrive under ultra-low oxygen concentration may vary but unknown for several postharvest pathogens.
In this study, we compared the ability of DCA with static CA and regular atmosphere (RA) to reduce the incidence and severity of five apple postharvest pathogens, i.e., Penicillium expansum, Botrytis cinerea, Neofabraea perennans, Mucor piriformis, and Phacidiopycnis washingtonensis. Unwounded and wounded apples were inoculated with spore suspensions of each pathogen and disease incidence and severity was assessed every two months up to 8 months.
Our results indicate variability between the five different pathogens to grow and cause postharvest diseases and that by using DCA a gain of 15 to 50% in reduction is possible compared to CA or RA.
While the semi-arid climate of central WA allows growing organic fruit with minimum impact of biotic stresses, storing organic fruit is a challenge with postharvest diseases being the number one limitation.
After 5 months of storage, an organic packer can lose up to 50% of organic fruit to diseases.
Currently, there are no effective postharvest bio-fungicides available for postharvest application and decays are managed by preharvest applications of some organic materials and postharvest sanitation.
Dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA) is a new approach used by organic packers specially, to extend the shelf life of organic fruit and reduce physiological disorders and DCA is increasingly used in the US Pacific Northwest (PNW). The ability of the microorganisms, especially, fungi that infect fruit and cause postharvest diseases, to grow and thrive under ultra-low oxygen concentration may vary but unknown for several postharvest pathogens.
In this study, we compared the ability of DCA with static CA and regular atmosphere (RA) to reduce the incidence and severity of five apple postharvest pathogens, i.e., Penicillium expansum, Botrytis cinerea, Neofabraea perennans, Mucor piriformis, and Phacidiopycnis washingtonensis. Unwounded and wounded apples were inoculated with spore suspensions of each pathogen and disease incidence and severity was assessed every two months up to 8 months.
Our results indicate variability between the five different pathogens to grow and cause postharvest diseases and that by using DCA a gain of 15 to 50% in reduction is possible compared to CA or RA.
Authors
A. Amiri
Keywords
controlled atmosphere, apple, postharvest, diseases, organic
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