Determination of fungal agents causing fruit rot in sweet cherry orchards and cold storages in Isparta province

As for all agricultural crops, various diseases cause yield losses on sweet cherry production. Fruit rot, causing significant yield losses not only in the orchards, but also in storage conditions, is among the most common diseases of sweet cherries. Isparta province, which is one of the important areas for fruit production in Türkiye, comes fourth in sweet cherry production. In this study, it was aimed to determine the fungal agents causing fruit rot on sweet cherries in the orchards and in the cold storages in Isparta province. Healthy and diseased fruit samples were collected from the randomly selected 76 orchards, in the districts of Isparta province where sweet cherry production was made, and from the 4 cold storages. As a result of the isolations, the most common agents on the fruit samples were; Alternaria alternata, Monilinia laxa, Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium commune, respectively. A. alternata, Aspergillus sp., B. cinerea, Cladosporium cladosporioides, Fusarium oxysporum and M. laxa were isolated from the latent infections on the fruits showing no disease symptom. The most commmon fungi isolated from the rotten fruits in the cold storages were; A. alternata, Trichoderma spp., P. expansum, P. glabrum and B. cinerea, while A. alternata was isolated from the symptomless fruits. P. expansum, Rhizopus stolonifer, P. fimorum, B. cinerea and P. commune were the most virulent agents in the pathogenicity experiment, where Stemphylium botryosum and Fusarium lateritium were found as the less virulent species. P. commune, P. fimorum and P. steckii from the Penicillium genus, besides F. lateritium and Trichothecium roseum were reported as fruit rot agents on sweet cherries for the first time in this study. In addition, Aspergillus spp., F. oxysporum, Geotrichum candidum, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, S. botryosum and Trichoderma spp. were first reports for Türkiye.