Project Number
WW 02-16
Project title
Nursery Mycorrhizas as an Integral Part of Proactive Disease and Pest Control Measures
Project leader
Meyer, A H
Team members
Halleen, F
Project description
Chemical disease and pest control measures fall short of providing the complete control needed to produce healthy vines in grapevine nurseries, as well as providing protection upon transplantation. Resistance build-up of diseases and pests to chemicals also add to pest and disease control failures. No consideration has yet been given to adopt cultural practices that would maximize the disease and pest suppressing abilities of mycorrhizas as part of preventative and integrated control measures.
The long term objectives are to investigate mycorrhizas as an integral part of nursery production systems and key constituents of integrated disease and pest control measures that would help ensure production of healthy, pathogen-free vines upon transplantation. This will be done by means of:
(a) A field survey of selected nurseries to assess the mycorrhizal abundance, diversity and functional symbiosis, and
(b) Pot trials to test specifically for the mycorrhiza’s pest and disease suppressing abilities.