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Funded Project

Funding Program: IPM Partnership Grants

Project Title: Production of Disease-Free Onion Bare Root Transplant Seedlings

Project Director (PD): Christine Hoepting [1]

Lead State: NY Lead Organization: Cornell University

Undesignated Funding: $7,999

Start Date: May-01-2008 End Date: Jul-31-2008

Pests Involved: Botrytis

Site/Commodity: onion

Summary: The first recommendation in an Integrated Pest Management strategy for controlling the neck rot disease of onion, caused by Botrytis allii, is to start with clean seed and transplant seedlings. In New York, major outbreaks of Botrytis neck rot of up to 80% loss in some varieties have occurred in association with the increase in growing onions from imported bare root transplants from Arizona over the last 6-7 years, especially during the very wet growing seasons of 2000 and 2004. A study conducted by Hoepting et al. in 2005 and 2006 revealed that 78% of 56 imported bare root onion transplant seedling samples (variety by grower) had some level of B. allii infection prior to their being transplanted into the ground in New York. Infection per sample (variety by grower) ranged from 1 to 66% of the individual transplant seedlings. Comparatively, no B. allii was detected in plug transplants or in seedlings of similar age and size as transplant seedlings that were direct seeded in local onion fields. These results confirmed that bare root transplant seedlings produced in Arizona are not produced free of the neck rot pathogen and serve as an important source of inoculum for this potentially devastating disease. Objectives: The objectives of this project are i) to elucidate why onion transplant production in Arizona is conducive to transplant seedlings being infected with B. allii, and ii) to develop control strategies so that these transplants can be produced free of B. allii. This project will be a collaborative effort among an Extension Vegetable Specialist (the project director), a Plant Pathologist and a Seed Scientist from Cornell University, an Extension Plant Pathologist from the University of Arizona, an onion transplant producer in Arizona, and Bejo Seed Company. It will include trials in Arizona on a commercial onion transplant farm and in New York at a research farm. Proposal Final Report

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