Abstract
During greenhouse production, petunia plants are frequently exposed to conditions optimal for botrytis blight, caused by Botrytis cinerea. Once plants are flowering and ready to be shipped to retail, they are irrigated and tightly packed onto shipping carts, creating a humid environment conducive for Botrytis growth. At the retail environment, petunia flowers exhibit symptoms of botrytis blight, e.g., tan necrotic spots that coalesce making the plants unsellable. Fungicide applications are the primary strategy for Botrytis management; however, fungicide resistance is a common phenomenon that results in lack of fungicide efficacy. Alternative Botrytis management strategies are necessary. The goal of this thesis was to explore the potential of calcium (Ca) to reduce botrytis blight on petunia flowers. In the first part of this study, increasing Ca concentrations in a calcium chloride spray solution reduced botrytis blight severity up to 93%. In Chapter 1, three factors that may have been the source of the disease reduction were explored: Ca, the chloride ion (Cl), and/or the electrical conductivity (EC) of the solution. The results demonstrated that Ca was the sole active ingredient in calcium chloride causing the reduction in botrytis blight severity. In Chapter 2, two methods for delivering Ca to plant tissues were compared, namely fertigation and spray applications. Calcium fertigation applications were ineffective for increasing Ca concentration in flower petals and for reducing botrytis blight severity. In contrast, Ca spray applications increased Ca concentration in flower petal tissue and reduced botrytis blight severity in the flowers. In Chapter 3, six calcium sources were evaluated for their potential for reducing botrytis blight while not causing spray damage. Calcium chloride, either lab grade or commercial grade, provided the highest disease reduction with the lowest spray damage potential at 1250 mg·L 1. Higher rates (2000 mg·L 1 Ca) did not improve the reduction in disease infection and did cause spray damage to flowers; however, flower buds were not damaged by the 2000 mg·L 1 Ca treatments. We conclude from this study that spray applications of 1250 mg∙L-1 Ca from CaCl2 are safe to spray on both flower buds and open flowers without risk of spray damage for maximum botrytis blight efficacy. The results from this research project demonstrate the effectiveness of Ca spray applications as an additional management strategy for decreasing flower susceptibility to botrytis blight.
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Claims 12
Claim · model-written summary
Increasing calcium chloride spray calcium reduced blight severity by up to 93%.
- Treatment
- increasing Ca concentrations in a calcium chloride spray solutione0
- Interactor
- Botrytis cinerea
Botrytis cinereae1 - Outcome
- botrytis blight severitye0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 93%e0
_flowers_in_Westgate_Gardens%2C_Canterbury.jpg?width=60){kind=small}
PetuniaNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
_flowers_in_Westgate_Gardens%2C_Canterbury.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“increasing Ca concentrations in a calcium chloride spray solution reduced botrytis blight severity up to 93%”
e1“caused by Botrytis cinerea”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Calcium alone accounted for the blight reduction from calcium chloride.
- Treatment
- calcium chloridee0
- Compound
- Cae0
- Outcome
- botrytis blight severitye0
- Qualifier
- sole active ingrediente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Ca was the sole active ingredient in calcium chloride causing the reduction in botrytis blight severity”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Calcium fertigation did not increase petal calcium.
- Organ / stage
- flower petalse0
- Treatment
- Calcium fertigation applicationse0
- Outcome
- Ca concentration in flower petalse0
- Direction
- ineffectivee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Calcium fertigation applications were ineffective for increasing Ca concentration in flower petals”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Calcium fertigation did not reduce blight severity.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Calcium fertigation applications were ineffective for increasing Ca concentration in flower petals and for reducing botrytis blight severity”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Calcium spray increased calcium in flower petals.
- Organ / stage
- flower petal tissuee0
- Treatment
- Ca spray applicationse0
- Outcome
- Ca concentration in flower petal tissuee0
- Direction
- increasede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Ca spray applications increased Ca concentration in flower petal tissue”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Calcium spray reduced flower blight severity.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Ca spray applications increased Ca concentration in flower petal tissue and reduced botrytis blight severity in the flowers”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Lab grade calcium chloride gave the highest disease reduction at 1250 mg per litre.
- Treatment
- Calcium chloride, either lab grade or commercial gradee0
- Outcome
- disease reductione0
- Direction
- higheste0
- Value
- 1250 mg·L 1e0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Calcium chloride, either lab grade or commercial grade, provided the highest disease reduction with the lowest spray damage potential at 1250 mg·L 1”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Calcium chloride had the lowest spray damage potential at that dose.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Calcium chloride, either lab grade or commercial grade, provided the highest disease reduction with the lowest spray damage potential at 1250 mg·L 1”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Higher calcium rates did not improve disease reduction.
- Treatment
- Higher rates (2000 mg·L 1 Ca)e0
- Outcome
- reduction in disease infectione0
- Direction
- did not improvee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Higher rates (2000 mg·L 1 Ca) did not improve the reduction in disease infection”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Higher calcium rates caused flower spray damage.
- Organ / stage
- flowerse0
- Treatment
- Higher rates (2000 mg·L 1 Ca)e0
- Outcome
- spray damage to flowerse0
- Direction
- did causee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Higher rates (2000 mg·L 1 Ca) did not improve the reduction in disease infection and did cause spray damage to flowers”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
Flower buds were undamaged by 2000 mg per litre calcium.
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“flower buds were not damaged by the 2000 mg·L 1 Ca treatments”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend spraying 1250 mg per litre calcium from CaCl2 on buds and open flowers.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“spray applications of 1250 mg∙L-1 Ca from CaCl2 are safe to spray on both flower buds and open flowers without risk of spray damage for maximum botrytis blight efficacy”
t0“Petunia Flowers”
The same questions in other papers
calcium atom · nutrient: content · Petunia (petunia)Results agree
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- positive
calcium atom · disease · Petunia (petunia)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
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calcium atom · pest · Petunia (petunia)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- negative
application · disease · Petunia (petunia)Positive and negative results
1 in the opposite direction
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application · nutrient: content · Petunia (petunia)Positive and negative results
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- no effect
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1 paper more in this group
See all 5 papers →fertilization · nutrient: content · Petunia (petunia)Positive and negative results
3 papers in the same direction as this paper · 5 in the opposite direction
- positive
- positive
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5 papers more in this group
See all 9 papers →fertilization · disease · Petunia (petunia)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- negative
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.