Poster Presentation Science Protecting Plant Health 2017

Cold plasma: A novel method to control Botrytis cinerea, the causal agent of grey mould on strawberry (#340)

Sharmin S Siddique 1 , Giles E.St.J. Hardy 1 , Kirsty L Bayliss 1
  1. Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia

Cold plasma (CP) has been successfully used to decontaminate fresh produce from microorganisms, particularly bacteria that cause food-borne illness. There are limited reports of CP being used to control plant pathogenic fungi, and most are limited to fungi causing postharvest diseases of nuts and grains. In this study, we investigated the direct effect of CP on Botrytis cinerea isolated from strawberry (Fragaria ananassa). CP was tested for its efficacy against pure cultures and spore suspensions of B. cinerea, following different treatment durations ranging from 30 seconds to six minutes. Applications of greater than two minutes significantly reduced the radial mycelial growth of both freshly inoculated cultures and two-day old active cultures compared to the control. In addition, CP treatment of spore suspensions reduced germination to zero within 18 hours of the treatment. These results demonstrate the potential of CP for the control of Botrytis cinerea associated with strawberry.