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Do strawberry plants get more resistant by ultraviolet light?
Can ultraviolet light (UVB) make strawberry plants more resistant to pest and disease attacks? That is one of the questions the Business Unit Greenhouse Horticulture and Flower Bulbs of Wageningen University & Research hopes to answer in the coming years during a large project on sustainable strawberry cultivation.
The project 'Resilient cultivation system 2024' focuses on various aspects of both greenhouse and open cultivation. One of those aspects is increasing plant resistance to pests and diseases. The goal is that the plant is at full strength before a real attack by an insect or fungus takes place.
Increasing the natural defenses
A resilience treatment makes the strawberry plant 'think' it is under attack. In this way, the plant increases the natural defenses before a real disease or pest can do any harm. One of the methods is the use of 'elicitor molecules': these are molecules that the plant associates with an attack and thereby ensure a more resilient crop. Another possible solution is the use of ultraviolet light: here too the plant becomes defensive and therefore becomes more resilient. During the study, the dose, duration and frequency of the UVB will be examined.
Resilience research results will eventually be combined with other measures regarding crop health and cultivation, in order to arrive at an integrated approach. This integrated approach will be tested at commercial growing sites in the final year of the project. Successfully combining various aspects will be a major step in making strawberry cultivation more sustainable.