Mindre förluster, bättre kvalitet i ekologisk äppleodling steget mellan forskning och praktiskt användande, del 2

Various fungal diseases cause damage to fruit, both during cultivation and storage. This often leads to significantly reduced productivity in organic apple farming compared to IP farming. Previous studies have shown that essential oils, and specifically a mixture of thymol and eugenol, can greatly reduce the occurrence of fungal diseases and their negative effects if the fruit trees are treated with them. In this project, a thymol/eugenol mixture was used in the cultivation of ‘Amorosa’ and ‘Cox Holstein’ on several occasions during the growing season to confirm the treatment’s effectiveness at the given concentration and timing in a commercial orchard. The impact on fruit quality after five months of storage in ULO as well as cold storage has been examined. Furthermore, the frequency of the different fungal pathogens has been established, along with the treatment’s effectiveness against each pathogen. The results show that the thymol/ eugenol treatment has a good ability to reduce losses caused by fungal diseases. Treatment of trees with the mixture of thymol and eugenol reduced naturally occurring fungal infections during ULO storage by 40% and during cold storage by 48% compared to fruit from untreated trees for ‘Amorosa’, and 69% and 47% for ‘Cox Holstein’, respectively. Bitter rot and lenticel rot were the fungal pathogens that caused the most damage, but these could be significantly reduced with the thymol/ eugenol treatment.