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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Kearneysville, West Virginia » Appalachian Fruit Research Laboratory » Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #384946
Research Project: Integrated Production and Automation Systems for Temperate Fruit Crops

Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection

Title: Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) for disease and pest management and automating UV-C delivery technology for strawberry

Author
item Takeda, Fumiomi
item Janisiewicz, Wojciech
item Short, Brent
item Leskey, Tracy
item STAGER, ADAM - Tric Robotics Llc

Submitted to: Acta Horticulturae
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/1/2021
Publication Date: 5/1/2021
Citation: Takeda, F., Janisiewicz, W.J., Short, B.D., Leskey, T.C., Stager, A. 2021. Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) for disease and pest management and automating UV-C delivery technology for strawberry. Acta Horticulturae. https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1309.76.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1309.76

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Alternative disease and pest management strategies are needed due to increased resistance by strawberry pathogens and arthropod pests to currently used synthetic pesticides and increasing consumer demands for fruit without pesticide residues. Thus, novel approaches that are ecologically sound, sustainable, and do not rely on the application of synthetic chemicals are urgently needed. Prior research on ultraviolet (UV) light to control fungal diseases was hampered by high plant damage. In 2011, we developed a method for controlling diseases of strawberry with night-time conventional UV-C (254 nm) irradiation treatment, which resulted in lowering of UV-C doses required to kill fungi (Botrytis cinerea, Podosphaera aphanis, and Colletotrichum acutatum and gloeosporioides) and subsequently, this work was extended to control arthropod pests (e.g., two-spotted spider mite) with no adverse effects on the strawberry plant. Here, we report on further progress made on field UV-C application technology (e.g., robotics and UV-C light array), control of Spotted Wing Drosophila with UV-C light, effect of UV-C irradiating on fungal pathogens causing anthracnose (Colletotrichum spp.) with low UV-C doses (=36 J m-2) of 254 nm and farUV at 220 nm and induction of fungal resistance in strawberry plants with UV-C irradiation.