Effect of hot water treatments on apple fruit rot caused by Fusarium spp.

Abstract

Hot water treatments of apple fruits prior to long-term storage have a high potential as a physical measure against apple fruit storage rot caused by plant pathogenic fungi. Fusarium species are increasingly found as causal agents of postharvest apple fruit rot. The effect of high temperatures on casual agents of Fusarium fruit rot, F. avenaceum and F. graminearum, was tested in this article. In in vitro assay, spore suspensions of F. avenaceum and F. graminearum were exposed to high temperatures (ranging from 45 to 90 °C) at different duration (ranging from 30 s to 20 min) and the treatments that significantly inhibited mycelial growth of the isolates (53 and 57 °C for 3 and 5 min) were tested in vivo by hot water treatment of inoculated apple fruits of Fuji cultivar. The obtained results showed that the most promising hot water treatment should be between 53 and 57 °C and between 3 and 5 min of the exposure period.