Practices to combat postharvest diseases of peach fruit

The management of postharvest decays of agricultural crops employs a wide range of practices that begin with appropriate harvest and handling practices to minimize fruit injuries and end withsuitable storage conditions of the commodity at the packinghouse, the market, and theconsumer. At the packinghouse, sanitation of equipment and fruit helps to reduce inoculum contamination. Physical treatments such as hot water baths or UV-C irradiation have been used successfully to stop incipient infections of decay fungi on some crops. Additionally, numerous natural products and biocontrols have been evaluated for their ability to reduce decays, but only few have been commercialized. Currently, postharvest fungicide treatments are still considered the most effective strategy to maintain postharvest crop health. The fungicides benomyl, thiophanate-methyl, triforine, and iprodione were previously available for use on stone fruit cropsin the United States and were highly effective against the major decays brown rot, gray mold, and Rhizopus rot. Their registrations were withdrawn in the 1980-90s as a result of the United States Environmental Protection Agency?s reregistration policy of older pesticides. These cancellations were at first considered the end of effective postharvest decay control, but instead, they spurred new beginnings in postharvest fungicide registrations. The first ?reduced risk? fungicide fludioxonil was identified and registered in 1997, followed by the ?reduced risk? fenhexamid and pyrimethanil. The registration of fludioxonil marked the start of a new era of postharvest safety, and this fungicide ultimately advanced to the most effective and most widely used broad-spectrum postharvest treatment in the world. The advent of marketing pre-ripened peaches and nectarines increased the spectrum of decays that needed to be managed when sour rot becameof commercial importance. After testing numerous compounds, the non-reduced risk fungicide propiconazole was developed in the early 2000s and still is the only highly effective treatment available for sour rot control. Growing consumers? concerns on treating fresh produce with synthetic fungicides led to the identification of natural fermentation products with antifungal properties. Natamycin and polyoxin-D were subsequently categorized as ?biopesticides?, andthese are exempt from residue tolerances in the United States. The evolution of postharvest fungicides is ongoing, and new fermentation products, plant extracts (i.e., essential oils), andbiological agents (i.e., bacteriaand yeasts) are being evaluated and developed with the goal of broad-spectrum activity and high performance.SourcesOverview of practices to combat postharvest diseases of peach fruitJames Adaskaveg & Helga ForsterX International Peach Symposium, 30 May -3 June 2022, Naoussa, Greecehttps://www.fruitsciences.eu/peach2021/Picture,?https://frutasolivar.com/fruta/melocoton/