Objective
Objectives of the proposed research are to optimise biological control the weed fat-hen (Chenopodium album) in maize, sugar beet and cabbage crops by applying the fungus Ascochyta caulina as a microbial herbicide, and to integrate biological control in traditional weed management systems.
Fat-hen is the most abundant and one of the most competitive weeds in Europe. Substantial reductions of herbicides are possible if this weed can be controlled biologically. Considerable progress in the biological of fat-hen by Ascochyta caulina has already been made. Under appropriate field conditions, the fungus kills 60-70 % of young seedlings, and substantially reduces regrowth of surviving plants. Related crop plants are not attacked.
For practical application, two major challenges remain: to increase the activity of the fungus on fat-hen for sufficient activity in less competitive crops (e.g. sugar beet), and the activity should vary less with outside weather conditions. Four research tasks were formulated to increase the activity, of Ascochyta caulina, to reduce its dependency on environmental conditions, and one to implement biological control in traditional weed control systems. To increase the activity of Ascochyta caulina, the genetic variation in virulence of the fungus will fully explored by searching and testing new isolates throughout Europe. To ascertain that selected isolates will be active under different climatic conditions and in a range of different crops in Europe, the activity of the most promising novel isolates will be tested under different environmental conditions and plant developmental stages. Specific attention will be given to improve the reliability of Ascochyta caulina under relatively dry conditions. The requirements to overcome the dependency on high air humidity will be met by adequate formulation and optimising spraying techniques. The 2-3 most promising new isolates of Ascochyta caulina will be tested in major crops in different regions of Europe, in combination with traditional measures to control the other weeds in these crops.
It is expected that, based on the results, the private industry involved in this project, will further develop and commercialise Ascochyta caulina into a microbial herbicide.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy plant protection
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering control systems
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology mycology
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture grains and oilseeds cereals
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Coordinator
6700 WAGENINGEN
Netherlands
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