Completed project
Optimal management of pre-harvest rot in sweet cherry (CY13001)
Publication date: June 4, 2017
Delivery Partner: Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture
This three-year project investigated the identity and management of pre-harvest rot pathogens in sweet cherries.
Monilinia species have long been thought to be the major cause of rots in cherries, but the results from this project suggest this is not the case.
Researchers found that while cherry rots look similar, different pathogens are involved. Botrytis cinerea was found to be the dominant rot pathogen in orchards surveyed in southern Tasmania, and Alternaria alternata was a dominant pathogen causing rot in orchards in Orange and Young in New South Wales – with pathogenicity tests confirming the latter could infect intact fruit.
Understanding that different fungal pathogens are involved has implications for management of cherry rots within Australian orchards.
The researchers also found that pathogen-spore abundance occurred right throughout the sweet cherry season from flowering, with a new molecular method developed to quantify spores of Botrytis cinerea, Monilinia laxa and Monilinia fructicola.
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This project was a strategic levy investment in the Hort Innovation Cherry Fund
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