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Success of diseases management in an organic orchard is highly dependent upon control strategy made during the primary infection season (MacHardy, 1996, Holb, 2002). High disease pressure, favourable weather condition and scab-susceptible cultivars support the buildup of severe scab epidemics in these orchards. As approved fungicides against apple scab is not effective enough in organic apple production, scab-resistant or moderately scab-susceptible cultivars are suggested to be planted and efforts to reduce primary inoculum sources are highly appreciated (MacHardy, 1996; Ellis et al., 1998; Holb & Heijne, 2001; Holb et al., 2003). Apple scab fungus survives on fallen leaves on the orchard fl oor; therefore, eradication leaf litter from the orchard fl oor seems to be an effective control method (Curtis, 1924). Only non-chemical sanitation practices can be used as eradication methods in organic orchards (Anonymous, 1989; Holb, 2005); therefore, possible non-chemical and simple sanitation practices are eradication of fallen leaves by collection, burning, disc cultivation, ploughing, shredding or applying antagonists. In early studies (Curtis, 1924, Keitt, 1936; Louw, 1948), it was demonstrated that if burning, ploughing or collection of fallen leaves were used separatelly, primary inoculum source in the following year could be reduced with 40-70 %. Leaf shredding have been investigated from the 1990th (Sutton & MacHardy, 1993; Sutton et al., 2000; Vincent et al., 2004) and it was shown that leaf shredding resulted in a reduction of 40 to 95% and 45 to 85% in ascospore inoculum and in scab incidence next spring, respectively. Studies from the USA and Canada (Heye & Andrews, 1983; Vincent et al., 2004) showed that the most effective fungal antagonists were Athelia bombacina and Microsphaeropsis ochracea, with reduction in ascospore production of 70–85%, however, commercial bioproduct is still not available. In the Netherlands, covering of orchard fl oor with plastic foil, as an leaf litter eradication method, was used in integrated apple orchards which resulted in 85–95% leaf scab incidences in spring (Holb et al., 2004ab). Simple sanitation practices have been widely investigated; however, they have not been compared to each other in one orchard system and no information is available about their effects on scab infection risk in organic apple orchards. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of two sanitation practices (eradication of fallen leaves by collection and disc cultivation) on leaf degradation and primary infection by Venturia inaequalis in an organic apple orchard on two apple cultivars. A raw economic evaluation was also made for farm-scale level to evaluate the effectiveness of the two sanitation practices.

Farm-scale evaluation of two widely used sanitation practices for reducing primary inoculums of apple scab in organic apple production