Use of a plastic rain-shield reduces gray mold (Botrytis cinerea Pers.) in ‘Čačanska Bestrna’ blackberry

Abstract

New systems for blackberry cultivation in enclosed and semi-enclosed areas have gained global popularity over the past several years. Primarily in terms of protection of fruits from adverse weather conditions, but also by indirectly reducing the threat of infection with economically significant pathogens, thus yielding an overall advantage over open-field production methods. The paper presents results of a three-year study (2011-2013) into the impact made by rain-shield cultivation system and chemical protection on incidence of gray mold and yield of usable fruits in 'Cacanska Bestrna' blackberry. It was observed that treatments induced in rain-shield cultivation system involving application of the fungicides, cyprodinil and fludioxonil (Switch) had a lower incidence of gray mold, i.e., a lower number of infected fruits (163.13 and 180.09) and a higher number of healthy fruits (2,129.96 and 2,226.00), together with a larger total number of fruits (2,291.00 and 2,387.87). In addition to this, a lower degree of infection (6.82 and 6.96%) and a higher yield of usable fruits (cane(-1), bush(-1) and ha(-1)) was observed in the blackberry cultivar under consideration (2,795.81 g, 8.38 kg, 18.63 t, respectively) grown under the rain-shield cultivation system and with applied chemical protection (2,675.54 g, 8.03 kg, 17.83 t, respectively), compared to the standard cultivation system.