November’s newsletter includes:
Horizon, the EU magazine about research and innovation, has conducted a very interesting interview with BIOCOMES coordinator Jürgen Köhl. In his discussion about the project, Jürgen emphasised that biological control is a completely different way of controlling pest and disease populations. What everybody - including growers and distributors - has to learn is that we are dealing with living organisms and that this is completely different to chemicals. Read more here.
At the end of August BIOCOMES partners comprising the Volcani Centre (Israel), University of Azores (Portugal), E-nema (Germany), Maynooth University and Coillte (Ireland) and Forest Research Institute (Poland) presented their research results on the application of entomopathogenic nematodes in Europe at the 32nd Symposium of the European Society of Nematologists in Braga, Portugal. Read more here.
BIOCOMES’ Aphids Identification Guide is a unique tool that helps fruit growers and researchers to identify aphids appearing in almond, apricot, blackthorn, cherry plum, peach, pear, plum and cherry orchards. Pictures and clear descriptions help to identify the right aphid in just a few steps. In 2017 BIOCOMES will further improve this tool by adding more interesting and relevant information especially for fruit growers. Information about relevant viruses and an overview of the main damage occurring with each aphid species will be added. Visit the Aphids Identification Guide.
In September 2016 the IOBC workshop on biocontrol and microbial ecology took place in Berlin, Germany. There has been significant progress in microbiology in past decades, with significant importance for biological control. But, reports BIOCOMES, we need a better understanding of factors influencing biological control of plant diseases at the field scale in praxis. The workshop therefore gave attention to research which discussed, in particular, microbial ecological aspects. Read more here.
In order to understand the response of biocontrol agents for verticillium wilt under different conditions, BIOCOMES compared the bio-priming, encapsulation and coating formulation protocols for Serratia plymuthica and Paenibacillus polymyxa . It reports that the results were cultivar and disease-pressure dependent. While Serratia plymuthica showed mild reduction of disease symptoms in greenhouse and field trials, Paenibacillus polymyxa had in some cases a negative impact on the seedlings. Read more here.
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