Control of lemon postharvest diseases by low-toxicity salts combined with hydrogen peroxide and heat

CERIONI, LUCIANA; SEPULVEDA, MILENA; RUBIO- AMES, ZILFINA; VOLENTINI, SABRINA I.; RODRIGUEZ MONTELOGO, LUISA; SMILANICK, JOE L; RAMALLO, JAQUELINE; RAPISARDA, VIVIANA A.

POSTHARVEST BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2013 vol. 83 p. 17 - 21

0925-5214

Abstract: The effectiveness of potassium sorbate, sodium bicarbonate andpotassium phosphite combined with heat and hydrogen peroxide in thepresence of CuSO4 to control major lemon postharvest diseases wasinvestigated. Green and blue molds, which both require wounds forinfections to occur, were controlled by combination of hydrogen peroxidefollowed by inorganic salts, even when the temperature solutions were25ºC. Control of sour rot was poor with salts solutions alone butsignificantly improved in treatments including hydrogen peroxide followedby potassium sorbate or sodium bicarbonate at 50ºC. Phomopsis anddiplodia stem-end rots were evaluated on artificially infected lemons.The first was effectively controlled by potassium sorbate and potassiumphosphite at 20ºC, and the latter was partially controlled only bypotassium sorbate. Applications of either potassium sorbate or a sequenceof hydrogen peroxide followed by potassium phosphite were the mostpromising treatments, primarily because they controlled most of thediseases without the need to heat the solutions. These treatmentscontrolled postharvest citrus diseases to useful levels and could besuitable alternative to conventional fungicides, or could be applied withthem to improve their performance or to manage fungicide resistantisolates.