Verticillium dahliae causes a wilting disease in strawberries and is very destructive on the light, sandy soils prevailing in many Austrian strawberry regions. Our work aims at the testing and providing different strategies to control Verticillium in the field: 1) a soil test to check the presence of microsclerotia before planting; 2) testing new, Verticillium tolerant early season varieties as alternative to ‘Elsanta’ and 3) testing measures to reduce the microsclerotia content in the soil. The paper describes a field monitoring to study the factors that influence the relationship between inoculum concentration in the soil and the disease incidence in the field, and on-farm biofumigation trials aiming at testing the applicability of the method to reduce the microsclerotia of Verticillium dahliae in the soil.

soil-borne pathogens; wilt; strawberry; Brassica juncea; biofumigation

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia