Fungicides for the Control of Strawberry Fruit Rots Under Different Storage Temperatures

Abstract

A study of the control of fruit fot of strawerries was undertaken using benomyl (Benlate 50 WP), dicloran (Botran 75 WP) and iprodione (Rovral 50 WP) for fruit stored at room temperature (35 - 37C) and at 10 C .None of the fungicides gave good control of strawberry fruit rots at room temperature for which the main fungi were Rhizopus stolonifer, Botrytis cinerea, Botryodiplodia theobromae and Aspergillus ps. However, iprodione was generally better than benomyl or dicloran. At the lower storage temperature all three fungicides gave good control of grey mold rot when stored for a period of 10 - 15 days. botrytis cinerea is generally the only major cause of fruit rot at low temperature. Analysis of the residue levels of the three fungicides in the strawberry fruit gave 2.857 ppm of benomyl, 6.618 ppm of dicloran and 1.056 ppm of iprodione.