Effects of the production environment on the susceptibility of rose flowers to postharvest infection by Botrytis cinerea

Abstract

We studied the effects of environmental conditions during production on susceptibility of roses to postharvest infection by B. cinerea. For flowers harvested from a commercial greenhouse, susceptibility was linearly correlated (r = 0.97) with mean air velocity during the 5-week periods before each harvest. Susceptibility was also correlated with mean leaf to air temperature gradient (r=0.83) and inversely correlated with wetness measured on an electronic leaf (r=-0.92), but these correlations were interpreted as secondary effects of the correlation with air movement. Susceptibility was not correlated with temperature, relative humidity (RH), or the other factors measured. In growth chamber experiments, flowers grown under high wind speed (0.55 m·s-1) were significantly more susceptible to infection than flowers grown under low wind speed (0.18 m·s-1). High relative humidity during production increased background infection levels (i.e., those infections not caused by laboratory inoculation) but did not affect susceptibility.