Experience of apple tree sustainable plant protection in Lithuania

Relatively large amounts of pesticides are used to control diseases and pests in modern apple production. The aim was to estimate the effect of reduced plant protection system and integrated apple-growing technology on apple fruit quality. The research was carried out at the Institute of Horticulture in 2011–2013 with apple cultivars 'Auksis', 'Alva', 'Connell Red', 'Ligol', 'Lodel', 'Rubin' and 'Shampion'. Reduced plant protection system was based on internet supported forecasting system iMETOS®sm. The same active ingredients of plant protection products were used not more than two times and harvest interval was 1.5 times longer than indicated on the label. Plant protection products labelled as "Very toxic" and "Toxic" were not used. Scab susceptible cvs. 'Alva' and 'Ligol' on average were sprayed twelve times, when other cultivars - nine times. Reduced plant protection system did not guarantee total scab control; therefore damaged fruits should be thinned manually. High quality fruit yield was on average 39 t/ha, but the yield of 'Shampion' and 'Ligol' reached 51-56 t/ha. 59% of fruits were 70-80 mm in diameter, and 30% of fruits more than 85 mm. All tested cultivars had small index of biennial yielding 0.11 – 0.34.

Details

Activity type

Participation in scientific conference

Activity work package

Reduction in pesticide residues

Activity number

LRCAF-WP3-A6

Activity contact

Alma Valiuškaitė, Nobertas Uselis, Darius Kviklys, Juozas Lanauskas, Neringa Rasiukevičiūtė
Institute of Horticulture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Kauno 30 str., Babtai, Kaunas distr., LT-54333, LITHUANIA. E-mail: [email protected]

Activity partner

Institute of Horticulture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry

Activity country

Lithuania

Last edit

31-10-2017