An update on control of brown spot of pear

Brown spot of pear is a fungal disease producing high economical losses in several pear-growing areas in Europe. Fungicide applications during the growing period either at fixed schedule or delivered according to the BSPcast forecasting system are not enough to control the disease under favorable conditions. New strategies have been introduced to control the inoculum production using sanitation methods. These methods are based on combinations of leaf litter removal during winter and biological control agent applications during late winter, spring and summer. These practices reduce both the inoculum pressure and disease levels. Therefore, the resulting optimized disease management consists of a combination of sanitation methods applied during the whole year with chemical fungicides scheduled according to the BSPcast forecasting model during the vegetative period. It is expected that the control of brown spot could be further refined upon availability of rapid methods for inoculum potential analysis. However, this analysis is difficult due to the variability in pathogenicity within the pathogen population.