Breakthrough in apple-scab control

The need for multiple, spring and summer applications of fungicides to control apple scab, the most destructive disease in apple production, may be over.

Scientists at Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, say it can now be controlled by a biological agent, H39, which is based on a strain of the Cladosporium fungus.

A biological-control company is evaluating the possible commercial use of H39, which reduced apple scab in leaves and fruits in several European field trials during the last two years.