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<pre>Hello everyone.

I am back on the list after a lengthy absence and I am enjoying the discussions
on various topics. It will be interesting to share information again on yield,
extraction efficiency and quality experiences arising from the harvest currently
underway in Australia. In the southern inland Riverina area we have had ideal
ripening conditions and we look forward to higher yields and higher quality
tthan last year.

On another issue I note there has been mention of some fruit rot problems by
several growers. We have been sent several fruit samples and our plant
pathologist here at Yanco, Andrew Watson has identified Anthracnose (
Colletotrichum gloeosporioides also called Glomerella cingulata) as the causal
pathogen on samples from the Hunter Valley and Nothern NSW. The disease seems to
be fairly widespread this year in areas that have had prolonged humidity in late
summer.

Studies in Calabria found that infection of leaves, twigs and shoots and that
disease build up in the foliage was the source of fruit infection in the Autumn.


Studies in India and China have shown a large variability in susceptibility
between varieties. While small fruited types a generally less susceptible than
large fruited types. Growers have observed a similar trend here with corregiola
and frantoio appearing to be substantially more resistant to infection than
large fruit types such as Manzanillo which seems to be highly susceptible.

If anyone has observed rust like discolouration of leaves or other symtoms such
as shoot die back in the foliage of trees with anthracnose infected fruit we
would be interested to examine these.If we can detect and monitor disease levels
in the foliage in spring and summer then we may be able to implement controls
before fruit infestation in late summer/autumn.

The indian research also indicated that copper sprays, bordeaux and copper
oxychloride gave the best control of anthracnose.

We will be looking at more samples of disease free and infected fruit as the
ripening period progresses in NSW and hopefully we can provide a little more
insight into Australian experiences with this disease over the next couple of
months. In the mean time I would be interested to hear from growers who have had
experience with fruit rot disease this year.

my email is, damian.conlan@agric.nsw.gov.au

Regards


Damian Conlan
NSW Agriculture
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