2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Black spot caused by the fungus Colletotrichum(anthracnose) and Botryosphaeriais the most devastating diseases in fruits and vegetables grown in the tropical climate. Both pathogens infect the fruit in the field while they are immature. Symptoms also appear on the fruit after ripening, causing damage to the fruit during storage, transit, and marketing. The intention of this study was to evaluate the fruit of thirteen pomegranate genotypes; ‘Ever Sweet’, ‘Girkanet’, ‘Angel Red’, ‘Ariana’, ‘Vietnam’, ‘EG’, ‘Kara Bala Mi Ursal’, ‘Molla Nepes’, ‘Sweet’, ‘Parfianka’, ‘Mack Glass’, ‘Red Silk’, and ‘Vkusnyi’ against black spot and decay. Fruit of the genotypes was harvested and delivered to the University of Florida by a local grower. All genotypes grown in the same orchard under a similar cultural practice. Fruits were stored at 6 C with 92± 3% relative humidity (RH) for 3 weeks in cold storage. Then fruit blackspot, stem end rot, crown rot, and fungal decay were assessed. The results indicated that ‘Ariana’ (38.75 %) and ‘Angel Red’ (63.63%) had the highest percentage of blackspot while there was no symptoms of black spot on ‘Parfianka’ cultivar. Observations on the crown and stem end rot showed that there were no rot in ‘Mack Glass’, ‘Ever Sweet’, ‘Vietnam’, and ‘Kara Bala Mi Ursal’ cultivars. However, ‘Parfianka’ and ‘Molla Nepes’ had the highest percentage of blossom end and husk rot, respectively. Furthermore, even though the fungal severity decay were high in ‘Red Silk’ (10%). In this study, no decay were observed for ‘Mack Glass’,‘Ever Sweet’,and ‘Kara Bala Mi Ursal’.

Keywords:Crown rot, Fungi, Pomegranate cultivar, Quality, Storage