Good news for those who like strawberries (and also for those who produce them): a team of researchers from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) and from GreenUPorto – Research Center in Sustainable Agri-Food Production is part of a project that aims to understand and control the appearance and development of a disease called gray rot.
How many times do we buy strawberries that look great and, after a few days, have to discard them due to the appearance of a gray mold around them? The culprit is the fungus Botrytis cinerea, which only develops into the ripe fruit.
“The spores are already there in the fruits, but we don't see them”, begins by explaining Susana Carvalho, professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and researcher at GreenUPorto, who is leading this project.
“This fungus can infect around 500 plant species, including crops as important as vines, tomatoes, kiwis, apples, raspberries and other small fruits. It leads to very significant losses in production, post-harvest and then to the consumer”, he adds.
In the fight against this fungus, high amounts of plant protection products are used and, therefore, one of the objectives of the researchers is also to identify and optimize the application of more sustainable substances, which potentiate those produced by the plant itself as defense mechanisms of the plant itself against the attack of this fungus.
Some of these substances, known as elicitors, will be tested in a greenhouse of strawberries produced in hydroponics, located in the facilities of GreenUPorto, on Campus de Vairão.
After three years of the project, this team hopes to be able to find alternatives to plant protection products, so that there is a marked reduction in the loss of these fruits (throughout the entire production and marketing chain) and to promote the production of better quality fruits. with 'zero waste', meeting consumer expectations.
“We want to know which elicitors have the most effective effect and how often and at what doses they should be applied in the field, to ensure better fruits for the consumer”, clarifies Susana Carvalho.
The project, funded by the FCT, at around 240 thousand euros, will be carried out in collaboration with the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom.
In addition to Susana Carvalho, the researcher Tânia Fernandes and the PhD student in Agricultural Sciences at FCUP, Chiara Murena, are involved in this project.
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