Control of Monilinia rots on fruit naturally infected by hot water treatment in commercial trials

In recent years, safer methods for the control of fruit postharvest pathogens have been investigated andheat treatment could represent an effective and safe approach for managing postharvest decay such asMonilinia rots. In the present study, the effect of hot water treatment (HWT) (60◦C for 30 and 60 s) onbrown rot was investigated. More specifically, the influence of HWT was determined in in vitro trialson conidial germination of Monilinia laxa, Monilinia fructicola and Monilinia fructigena and in peach andnectarine fruit, naturally infected. The effect of hot water application on fruit quality was also assessed. M.fructicola showed a greater resistance to heat than M. laxa and M. fructigena, however conidia germinationof all three species was completely inhibited by a dipping in hot water for 1 min at 55◦C. The results ofa large scale experiment under commercial conditions and several pilot trials showed a good antifungalactivity of HWT in naturally infected fruit. After 6 days at 0◦C and 3 days at 20◦C, in both semi-commercialand commercial trials, the inhibition of decay was higher than 78% in four trials out of six. In addition,the treated fruit showed an acceptable commercial quality and no visual damage was observed as aconsequence of HWT. The results demonstrated that HWT is a promising method to control Moniliniarots of peach and nectarine, and is safe and readily available for conventional and organic productionunder commercial conditions.