BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF VENTURIA INAEQUALIS – THE CAUSE OF APPLE SCAB IN APPLE

Abstract

The main goal of the experiment was to study the possibility for biological control of apple scab by use of innovative biofungicide Vacciplant (a.m. Laminarin) and to compare the results of biological control with those from standard chemical control of this disease. Experiment was conducted during the 2016 in region of Prespa and region of Tetovo, on two apple varieties, idared and golden delicious. In untreated variant in region of Tetovo, was observed very high level of infection (77.21% on the leaves and 24.35% on the fruits), which demonstrated the destructive potential of this apple disease in our country. In region of Prespa, significantly lower level of infection was observed in untreated variant (30% on the leaves and 9.5% on the fruits). Regarding the efficacy of tested fungicides, in region of Tetovo, standard fungicide Merpan (a.m. captan) used in chemical variant provided considerably lower degree of efficacy on leaves and fruits (71.38% and 60.86% respectively), compared with biofungicide used in biological variant (95.13% and 94.78% respectively). In region of Prespa, the efficacy performance of standard fungicides on the leaves and fruits (98.33% and 100% respectively) was almost equal with the performance of biofungicide (99.16% and 100%).