COMPARISON OF INTEGRATED AND CONVENTIONAL PLANT PROTECTION OF CHERRY ORCHARDS

The investigations were carried out in four fruit bearing sweet cherry orchards (60 ha) of the Institute of Agriculture in Kyustendil during 1990-2006 (with intermission). Two plant protection technologies for control of cherry leaf spot and cherry fruit fly were applied: T1 - conventional with protective application for controlling of cherry leaf spot and pest control by treatments independently of its density. T2 - integrated protection with post infection (curative) treatments against cherry leaf spot according to the method of Eisensmith and Jones (1981a, 1981b) and control of cherry fruit fly and other pests according to the threshold. During the period of investigation seven fungi, one bacteria and nine pests were permanent species which caused damage of cherry in Kyustendil region (South - western Bulgaria). The key disease and pest were cherry leaf spot (B. jaapii) and cherry fruit fly (R. cerasi). The number of treatments in the integrated plant protection treatment of cherry was reduced by application of post infection (curative) treatments against cherry leaf spot and threshold for R. cerasi established in the Institute of agriculture in Kyustendil.