Date of Award

8-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Plant and Environmental Science

Committee Chair/Advisor

James Emerson Faust

Committee Member

Guido Schnabel

Committee Member

Hehe Wang

Abstract

Botrytis cinerea is an important pathogen that has a significant economic impact on the floriculture industry from propagation to the postharvest environment. Chemical fungicide applications have been one of the main approaches that growers use for botrytis blight management; however, studies have shown that the indiscriminative use of these chemicals leads to fungicide resistance (Brent and Hollomon, 1998; Fillinger and Elad 2016). This thesis explores the potential use of biorational products for botrytis blight management. Biorationals are defined as compounds that have low or no direct mammalian toxicity and few effects on the environment (Paulitz and Belanger 2001). A review of the literature is provided in Chapter 1, which focuses on the importance of Botrytis cinerea in the floriculture industry, common cultural and chemical practices employed by growers, fungicide resistance, and the use of biorational products employed against fungal diseases. Chapter 2 evaluates biorational products which offers an alternative approach to manage botrytis blight in cut rose flowers and petunia flowers including biological control agents, botanicals, plant nutrients, microorganism-derived compounds, and system-acquired resistance inducers. Chapter 3 evaluates combinations of the most effective biorational products observed in Chapter 2.

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