Soil covering and biofumigant effect of Armoracia rusticana against spore dispersal and viability of Downy mildew inoculum in viticultural systems-BIOVINE

Downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) is one of the major disease of grapevine, which causes severe yield losses and a great reduction in the final quality of grape/wine. Downy mildew control is traditionally based on the use of preventative fungicides, that prevent grapevine via contact in early stages of pathogen development, when is still on plant surface. The most used contact fungicides are copper based that create a protectant barrier on the plant killing the propagules of the pathogen, the zoospores, and avoiding the host penetration. Usually, copper is used alone or combined with systemic fungicides, which affect pathogen in later stages of development by having a curative or eradicant effects. Because of an increasing concern about pesticides effects on human, environment and not target organisms, alternative solutions to chemicals started to be tested in field to check if they can be integrated in the disease management system, with the aim of reducing pesticide amount sprayed within a season to levels that are economically and environmentally acceptable. Objective of this study was to investigate physical barrier and biofimugation effect of Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) from Brassicaceae family.