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Monitoring of ascospore density of Erysiphe necator in the air in relation to weather factors and powdery mildew development

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Abstract

In a 6-year Hungarian study, ascospore density of Erysiphe necator in the air was monitored and related to three weather variables (temperature, relative humidity, and rainfall) and powdery mildew disease progress in two commercial vineyards. Temporal pattern in aerial density was also quantified. In total, 71 ascospore trapping periods were detected over the 6-year period from early April until end June. Across all years, 6.6 % of the total ascospores (0.5 % mean ascospore percent per day) were caught between the initiation of sampling in April and bud break, 62.2 % (1.6 %) from bud break to bloom, and 31.2 % (0.3 %) between bloom and the conclusion of sampling at the end of June. Hourly proportions of ascospores caught did not reveal diurnal patterns of spore release. All three weather factors (in the order of rainfall, relative humidity and temperature) correlated significantly with mean ascospore catches in each year. Mean hourly rainfall correlated best with mean hourly ascospore catches (correlation coefficient, r, ranged from 0.43 to 0.78) in both vineyards and in all years. First leaf and berry symptoms appeared between 7 and 24 May and between 25 May and 19 June, respectively, during the 6-year study. Disease started to progress slowly after the appearance of the first infected leaf followed by an exponential increase from early June. By the end of June, leaf and berry disease incidences ranged from 4.1 to 98.2 % and from 0.9 to 6.8 %, respectively, over the 6-year period. Leaf incidences showed significant relationship with corresponding cumulative numbers of trapped ascospore in five out of 6 years, which was described by three-parameter Gompertz functions in each year. Results were compared and discussed with previous observations.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank grapevine growers for their excellent assistance and P. Hoffmann for his valuable contributions to this work. This research was supported partly by a financial budget of the BASF Hungária Ltd, and by grants of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (K78399 and K108333) and the NKTH-OM-00227/2008 as well as by a János Bolyai Research Fellowship awarded to I.J. Holb.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Debrecen, P.O. Box 36, H-4015, Debrecen, Hungary

    Imre J. Holb

  2. Plant Protection Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 102, H-1525, Budapest, Hungary

    Imre J. Holb

  3. BASF Hungária Ltd, 30 Váci Street, 1132, Budapest, Hungary

    István Füzi

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  1. Imre J. Holb
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  2. István Füzi
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Correspondence to Imre J. Holb.

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Holb, I.J., Füzi, I. Monitoring of ascospore density of Erysiphe necator in the air in relation to weather factors and powdery mildew development. Eur J Plant Pathol 144, 751–762 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-015-0823-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10658-015-0823-4

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