Management Strategies for Botrytis Rot in Strawberry

Abstract

Strawberry is major horticultural fruit crop grown across the globe. The crop is basis of a multibillion dollars food product industry and a major employer of the global population. Gray mold disease caused by pathogen Botrytis cinerea is responsible for massive pre-harvest and post-harvest losses in the crop making it a major challenge for the overall health of the industry. Furthermore, infected fruits are equally disliked by commercial buyers and domestic consumer resulting in to major losses for the growers. Rising populations and climate change factors are crucial in this aspect as well, because they have a negative impact on the overall yield of crop and can also lead to rapid mutations in pathogen genome making it more resilient to multiple climatic conditions. In this chapter we are going to discuss fundamentals of this issue, basic biology of the pathogen followed by conventional and modern approaches for disease control and future perspective.