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Natural recovery from Verticillium wilt in olive: can it be exploited in a control strategy?

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Abstract

Aims

Our objective was to evaluate if natural recovery may be exploited in disease control of Verticillium wilt in olive. Therefore, we evaluated the following: the incidence of natural recovery; the Verticillium dahliae viability within olive tissues over time and the effectiveness of soil solarization, calcium cyanamide and pollarding of trees at soil level in promoting natural recovery.

Methods

Three different experiments (A, B and C) were performed in commercial olive orchards planted with the highly susceptible cv. ‘Bella di Cerignola’ and infested with the non-defoliating V. dahliae pathotype.

Results

In experiment A, in the period 2010–2012, natural recovery occurred on 35 of 138 diseased trees (25 %); however, this recovery was transient and lasted between 3 months for 11 trees (8 %) and 21 months for one tree (0.7 %). V. dahliae tended to be inactivated in twigs within 1 or 2 years after symptom onset (experiment A). However, it was evident that V. dahliae was more abundant in larger (trunk and first- or second-order branches) versus thinner woody parts of olive trees (roots; experiment B). In the attempt to explore whether natural recovery could be further stimulated artificially, it was observed that soil solarization and soil application of calcium cyanamide were ineffective in promoting its occurrence. Tree pollarding at soil level induced a transient recovery, which lasted only 1 year (experiment C).

Conclusions

Based on our observations, natural recovery of susceptible olive from Verticillium wilt has a low impact on the disease epidemiology in the short-term only and cannot be effectively stimulated in practice by soil solarization, calcium cyanamide or tree pollarding.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Prof. Epaminondas J. Paplomatas, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, for critical reading of the manuscript and Dr. Steven T. Koike, University of California Cooperative Extension, California, for the English proofreading. Also, the authors thank Mr. Nicola Contursi and Mr. Valentino Poliseno for their technical assistance.

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  1. Giovanni Bubici

    Present address: Istituto di Virologia Vegetale, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Bari ‘Aldo Moro’, via Amendola 165/A, 70126, Bari, Italy

    Matteo Cirulli

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  1. Giovanni Bubici
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  2. Matteo Cirulli
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Correspondence to Giovanni Bubici.

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Responsible Editor: Jesus Mercado-Blanco.

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Bubici, G., Cirulli, M. Natural recovery from Verticillium wilt in olive: can it be exploited in a control strategy?. Plant Soil 381, 85–94 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2112-y

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