Effective onion leaf fleck management and variability of storage pathogens

Botrytis spp. cause several diseases in Allium crops and depending on meteorological conditions economic losses can exceed 50%. Forecasting models improve plant protection and sometimes reduce consumption of fungicides, because applications are made precisely during the favourable periods for disease development. Our aim was to evaluate the iMETOS®sm B. cinerea forecasting model as an effective onion leaf fleck management system and estimate the variability of onion bulb pathogens during storage. Assessment of forecasting model data showed that favourable conditions for leaf fleck development arise in July, but greatly depend on that year’s meteorological conditions. During an experimental year the first sprayings with fungicides were applied as forecasted from the model, which resulted in application 19, 6 and 23 days earlier than conventional treatment application times. In 2012-2014 iMETOS®sm treatment yield increased by 3.51 t ha-1, 3.87 t ha-1 and3.40 t ha-1 relative to the control. During storage most frequent injuries were fungal (44%) and bacterial (41%), followed by insects (7%) and physiological (9%). The highest prevalence of injuries was detected after 2 months of storage.