SOPP drenching for postharvest decay of Anjou pear fruit
Author: P. G. Sanderson
Published: 2000
Summary: Blue and gray molds are the most common postharvest diseases of pears and apples. Gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers.: Fr., is the most frequently encountered disease in untreated fruit stored in bins. Because B. cinerea frequently spreads from fruit to fruit (nests), losses from initial infection foci can be large. Furthermore, fruits with undetected nascent infections often are packed and can lead to situations in which boxes of fruit must be repacked before shipping. Preliminary studies have shown that both primary and secondary gray mold infections can be prevented by treating fruit with fungicides immediately after harvest and before it is put away in storage.
