Integrated Management of Rosellinia nEcatrix Root Rot on Fruit Tree Crops

Abstract

Rosellinia necatrix is a soil borne pathogen causing a disease commonly named “white root rot”. The pathogen, widely distributed throughout temperate and tropical climates, recently showed an increasing trend of attacks on a number of different host species. Economic losses are particularly serious in the nurseries and on orchard trees, although field crops and weeds can also be severely damaged. The pathogen is mainly disseminated by propagating materials and can survive in soil for many years. Control strategies, which include cultural practices, soil disinfestations, chemical treatments, soil solarization and biological control are expensive and not always resolutive. Therefore, white root rot control largely depends on attempts to exclude the pathogen through the use of R. necatrix-free propagating material and planting in non-infested soils. In this context a fundamental role is played by specific rules, promoting the commercialisation of healthy propagating materials and the availability of new molecular detection methods to exclude presence of the pathogen in soil and host tissues.