Postharvest handling and disease control in melons

• China Agricultural University, China

This project will document the harvest, handling and marketing of melons in Western China and assess the feasibility of using novel "defence eliciting" treatments for postharvest disease control. Control of the wound pathogens which affect melons (Geotrichum candidum, Rhizopus spp., which also affect many other fruit and vegetables) has not been addressed in ACIAR projects to date.

The project will focus on identification of the causes of postharvest melon losses in Australia and China and test novel strategies towards control of postharvest melon diseases. Novel strategies are urgently required to replace benomyl, withdrawn from postharvest use in Australia at 31/12/1996. The aims will be approached by the following means:

1) documentation of postharvest melon handling systems and the major causative agents responsible for postharvest melon loss in China. This will be done using the Australian system as a standard for comparison and testing the Australian control measures in China to reduce postharvest melon losses;

2) investigation of the factors affecting the resistance of melons to the diseases. These include a) test of resistant cultivars, b) evaluation of systemic inducing resistance (SIR) agents and c) understanding of environmental factors on the expression of host resistance;

3) preliminary development of biocontrol methods for control of postharvest melon diseases.

Participants in China will come from three laboratories (Gansu Melon Research Institute, Sichuan Pomological Institute and China Agricultural University) and a Department of Agriculture (Melon Quality Control Authority, Xingjiang Department of Agriculture) and in Australia from the University of Sydney and NSW Agriculture in association with the Sydney Postharvest Laboratory (based at CSIRO Food Science & Technology).