Horticulture - Reducing the risk of oomycete pathogens, thrips and weevils for sustainable, coconut coir based soft fruit production

椰壳是草莓和覆盆子生产中最广泛使用的基质。其生物、化学和物理特性使作物在低病虫害压力下实现高产和连续生产。然而，引起卵菌病原体、蓟马和象鼻虫的根腐病会威胁到椰子的生产，导致产量下降30%以上。根腐病病原体可以通过受感染的植物材料和灌溉水传播到以椰子为基础的生产中，而乱伦害虫则从邻近的田地侵入椰子。由于禁止使用有效的化学防治产品和消费者要求减少农药使用的压力，因此需要更可持续地防治病虫害和病原体，例如使用生物防治真菌和细菌。卵菌病原体可以作为孢子在椰子中持续存在几个季节，如果椰子在几个种植季节重复使用，可能会造成大量产量损失。如果在几个季节中重复使用基质，诸如西花蓟马和藤象鼻虫之类的害虫也会感染废弃的培养基，并增加种群。虫害和疾病对生产造成破坏的风险是在单一种植季节使用椰壳基质的原因。这导致每年仅在英国草莓生产中就有超过60万立方米的废椰壳基质被丢弃。一次性使用椰胶基材价格昂贵，劳动强度大，环境不可持续。在这个项目中，NIAB East Malling的研究人员将与coir回收公司Overland Ltd.合作，目的是1)释放coir回收的潜力，以生产可持续的可再生的原始coir材料替代品；2)研究生物防治生物是否有助于进一步减少原始和回收介质中的卵菌根腐病病原体。我们会评估Overland开发的回收和消毒方法在多大程度上可以减少病虫害风险。我们将使用广泛的方法，从田间规模的实验草莓生物测定和生物防治修正到最先进的微生物组分析，以确定已知和新的病原体复合物的风险和生物防治的效果。研究结果将使种植者能够更好地了解和更可持续地管理软果生产中的病虫害风险。

Coconut coir is the most widely used substrates strawberry and raspberry production. Its biological, chemical and physical properties enable high yield and consistent crop production with low pest and disease pressure. Root rot causing oomycete pathogens, thrips and weevils however can threaten coir based production causing over 30% decline in yields. Root rot pathogens can spread to coir based production with infected plant material and irrigation water, while incest pest colonise coir from the neighbouring fields. The bans of effective chemical control products and consumer pressure for reduction of pesticide use are driving the need for more sustainable pest and pathogen control such as the use of biocontrol fungi and bacteria. Oomycete pathogens can persist as spores in the coir across several seasons and can cause large yield loss if coir is reused over several cropping seasons. Pest such as western flower thrip and vine weevils can also infest spent media and build up populations with if substrate is reused over several seasons. The risk of pests and diseases devastating production is the reason why coir substrate is used for a single cropping season. This results in over 600,000 m3 of spent coir substrate discarded every year in UK strawberry production alone. The single use of coir substrate is expensive, labour intense, and environmentally unsustainable. In this project, researchers from NIAB East Malling will collaborate with coir recycling company Overland Ltd. with the aim 1) to unlock the potential of coir recycling to produce sustainable recycled alternative to virgin coir material and 2) to investigate if biocontrol organisms can help to further reduce oomycete root rot pathogens in virgin and recycled media. We will assess to what extent the recycling and sterilising methodology developed by Overland can reduce pest and disease risk. We will use a wide range of methods, from field scale experimental strawberry bioassays and biocontrol amendments to state-of-the-art microbiome analysis to ascertain the risk of known and new pathogen complexes and efficacy of biocontrol. The outcomes will enable growers to better understand and more sustainably manage the risk of pests and disease in soft fruit production.