Source: N Y AGRICULTURAL EXPT STATION submitted to
THE NOVEL USE OF LIGHT TO SUPPRESS A BROAD GROUP OF PLANT PATHOGENS AFFECTING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION OF ORGANICALLY GROWN CROPS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
TERMINATED
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1007436
Grant No.
2015-51300-24135
Project No.
NYG-625578
Proposal No.
2015-07450
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Program Code
113.A
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2015
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2020
Grant Year
2015
Project Director
Gadoury, D. M.
Recipient Organization
N Y AGRICULTURAL EXPT STATION
(N/A)
GENEVA,NY 14456
Performing Department
Plant Path./Plant Microbe Biol
Non Technical Summary
Our long-term goal is to exploit light as a natural and non-chemical means of controlling powdery mildews. Powdery mildews are internationally important pathogens attacking a variety of crops. The driving force of the disease is abundant production of the infectious spores of the pathogen. Organic producers are particularly challenged by the need to suppress powdery mildews. A trend towards production in greenhouses and high-tunnel systems favors severe disease.All powdery mildews have evolved to use light to regulate their development. Light can be used in ways that attack these evolutionary traits to disrupt fundamental processes and thereby suppress disease. We have pioneered a non-chemical means to disrupt sporulation, and have extensive preliminary data to show that Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) lamps and Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs) producing specific types of light that can disrupt spore production of a broad range of powdery mildews. Our project engages a multidisciplinary and international team, with enthusiastic support of stakeholders in the organic agriculture community. Our project furthermore links research to a comprehensive outreach and educational program in partnership with state and regional stakeholder organizations.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
21214291160100%
Knowledge Area
212 - Pathogens and Nematodes Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
1429 - Cucurbits, other;

Field Of Science
1160 - Pathology;
Goals / Objectives
Our long-term goal is to exploit light as a natural and non-chemical means of controlling powdery mildews for the benefit of those involved in organic crop production.
Project Methods
Circadian rhythms, signal reception, signal interpretation, and signal disruption. We will elucidate true circadian rhythms in selected powdery mildews, and explore the disruption of circadian rhythms to suppress pathogen development.We will use a finely divided LED array comprising specific narrow-band wavelengths that can be applied singly or in any combination, and can be varied in intensity. The LED arrays will be deployed within a wind tunnel modified from an earlier design that successfully used in previous published studies on effects of light on spore release. Where an identifiable pathogen response is associated with light or the absence of light, we will first assess the relationship between light and a putative circadian rhythm using a simple experimental design from previous work involving inversion of expected day and night periods. Once this has been accomplished, the next step will be to attempt disruption of the circadian clock through provision of a "false dawn".Convergent genetic studies. Our approach will also involve the screening of pathogen genomes for likely genetic components involved in circadian rhythms as well as light signal reception, signal interpretation, and signal disruption. E. necator will be grown in 24h darkness to the point of dense hyphal colonies that are sporulation competent. These colonies will be maintained in the dark, and triplicate samples removed at 4h intervals for six timepoints, starting at 2 AM. Strand-specific RNA-Seq will be completed targeting at least 10 million sequence reads per replicate, aligning reads to draft genomes and transcriptomes previously published for E. necator. The null hypothesis is that E. necator uses the same clock genes as closely related ascomycetes; therefore, temporal expression analysis of candidate genes will be analyzed first to test this hypothesis. If the candidate clock genes do not follow the expected circadian clock patterns of expression, the benefit of RNA-Seq is that a discovery approach can be pursued to cluster by expression pattern and identify suites of genes that do follow the expected circadian clock pattern.There will be several statistical analyses focused on targeted or global gene expression:Circadian clock candidate gene timecourse in continuous dark every 4 hours for 7 timepoints, to test for differential expression consistent with previous publications in model fungi, plants, and mammals. Discovery approach to cluster by expression pattern and identify suites of genes co-regulated with circadian clock.Three light treatments that differentially trigger sporulation for statistical comparison of sporulating versus non-sporulating gene expression at 0, 1, 4, and 8 hours post-treatment.Night-disruption of circadian clock (Dis) for independent comparison to no-light control (C, both treatments non-sporulating) and sporulation-inducing treatment (P), which could have timepoints at 0, 1, 4, 5, 8, and 12 hours post-disruption treatment.Modifications of natural light caused by plastics and glass in plant growth systems and effects on powdery mildews. We will quantify the aging effects of natural sunlight upon a wide variety of new and aged glass and plastics. The resultant altered spectral characteristics will then be evaluated under standardized conditions to isolate the effect of the altered spectrum upon growth and development of powdery mildews.Samples of several materials will be obtained from manufacturers and will tested for their spectral properties under controlled conditions using multispectral radiometry. The materials will also be subjected to standardized weathering over a 2-yr period to examine how the original spectral properties are altered over time.Modifications of lighting to remediate effects of plastic and glass enclosures on powdery mildews. We will design and conduct experiments wherein the quantified lighting conditions of high tunnels are used as experimental variables, with controls being the light condition measured immediately outside the tunnel, i.e., natural unobstructed or unfiltered daylight. The foregoing will provide guidance on the light supplementation treatments to be evaluated in this part of the project.Diverse designs for diverse end users. We will focus upon several diverse devices and technology for a variety of end users. Although this technology has particular utility for organic production, where options to suppress disease are limited, our results have broad applicability for production agriculture. In the simplest iteration, we can evaluate a single or paired UV-B lamp(s) of the type used in our prior studies (Q-Lab UVB-313 EL) that is manually passed over the crop by the grower. Likewise, there are multiple ways in which UV-B lamps could traverse a crop, ranging from towable units, to suspending lamps from existing mobile spray booms or picking platforms to fully automated robotic systems. Our development plan for devices to apply UV-B and LED technology is a two-way street, on which devices will intially be developed in consultation with stakeholders, tested for efficacy, and then presented to stakeholders for evaluation. Subsequent designs will be refined or developed anew based upon stakeholder evaluations.Optimization studies within the UV-B band. We have identified the specific wavelength (i.e., 280 nm) within the UV-B band that is the effective component. An XeBr lamp that produced a narrow peak output of 280 nm has been made available to project scientists for furhter experiments by Ushio Inc, a major producer of lamps. The specificity and intensity of output would allow for the following: (i) application of higher UV-B doses for greater pathogen suppression due to elimination of UV-B wavelengths that are not relevant to pathogen suppression; and (ii) shorter application times at equivalent UV-B dose, an important factor in mobile application devices.Training and Evaluation Workshops. We will extend knowledge gained in our project within the context of an integrated disease management program through state and regional NOFA workshops.Production of high-quality audiovisual media for training in pest management. Software for computer-generated animation (CGA) is sufficiently advanced that remarkably sophisticated animations are possible with modest effort. The Research Experience for Undergraduates effort will be directed towards recruitment of talented undergraduates with CGA skills. The students will work with project scientists and key extension personnel at Cornell and partner institutions in the design and production of digital imagery and educational video tools.

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/20

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are broad and hierarchical. Within the scientific community, the targets are peer scientists in the discipline of plant pathology and allied pest management professions of entomology and weed science. The light-based technologies have been discovered to have relevance and efficacy outside of plant pathology. Current research project have expanded to include suppression of arthropods pests. Target audiences also include graduate and undergraduate students, crop advisors, Extension specialists, commodity specialists, and private consultants. Outside the domain of scientific and advisory populations, the target audiences are lighting manufacturing companies and scientists, and the greenhouse and high-tunnel construction industry. At the level of primary producers, our target audience includes a broad range of growers of high value fruit and vegetable crops, with research and demonstration projects underway for this reporting period in strawberry, grape, cucurbits, rose, rosemary, basil, hemp, and hops in several US states, and in Norway and England. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities The graduate student assigned to investigate reciprocity as his thesis project (Tyler McCann) has completed his research and successfully defended his thesis and will graduate from Cornell University in January 2019. The graduate student (Rodrigo Onofre) at UFL-GCREC assigned to operating the robotic systems as part of his thesis research spent a summer with our collaborators at NIBIO/Norway to expand this research within his dissertation work. He has now graduated with is PhD and is a postdoctoral scietist at Kansas State University. Six undergraduate interns completed REU programs with project-related research. These undergraduate students are now enrolled in graduate programs in plant pathology at other land grant universities. Surya Sapkota, a postdoctoral scientist supported by the project discovered unique pre-infection increases in resistance to downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) in grapevines treated with UVC, and has presented this work at a national meeting of the American Phytopathological Society. Professional Development Both graduate students (Tyler McCann at Cornell and Rodrigo Onofre at UFL) presented their thesis research at the International Congress of Plant Pathology in Boston MA in July 2018. See publications list. The UFL student (Rodrigo Onofre) presented his research at the International Epidemiology Conference in Lillehammer Norway in June 2018. See publications list. The numerous public presentations, web news releases, and extension field days have served to incresase the general knowledge and competency of grower stakeholders and advisory personnel in light and plant health. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Participated in a Controlled Environment Agriculture workshop at Cornell/Geneva on April 25 2019 for 98 stakeholders from academia, USDA, and the private sector, and presented a research and extension seminar entitled "Light and plant health: new approaches to disease and pest suppression". Presented research and extension results at NASGA/NASS National Conference in Orlando, FL in seminar entitled "Design and operational considerations for use of UV light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions", 5 February 2019. Presented research and extension results at USDA-SCRI FRAME conference in Prosser, WA entitled "Design and operational considerations for use of ultraviolet light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions." On February 27th, 2019. Conference with Driscoll's Executive Vice President Scott Komar to review future UV field experiments on strawberry in the Eastern US and CA on 17 May 2019. Conducted research and demonstration tours of UV and visible light enabled greenhouse sections at Cornell/Geneva for grower and stakeholder for the following groups: Controlled Environment Agriculture/GLASE, UFL-GCREC, Geneva Summer Scholars Program, and New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture. · Controlled Environment Agriculture workshop at Cornell/Geneva on April 25 2019 for 98 stakeholders from academia, USDA, and the private sector, and presented a research and extension seminar entitled "Light and plant health: new approaches to disease and pest suppression" · NASGA/NASS National Conference in Orlando, FL in seminar entitled "Design and operational considerations for use of UV light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions", 5 February 2019. Presented research and extension results at USDA-SCRI FRAME conference in Prosser, WA entitled "Design and operational considerations for use of ultraviolet light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions." On February 27th, 2019. · Conference with Driscoll's Executive Vice President Scott Komar to review future UV field experiments on strawberry in the Eastern US and CA on 17 May 2019. Conducted research and demonstration tours of UV and visible light enabled greenhouse sections at Cornell/Geneva for grower and stakeholder for the following groups: Controlled Environment Agriculture/GLASE, UFL-GCREC, Geneva Summer Scholars Program, and NY State Center of Excellewnce for Food and Agriculture.Coauthorship of research and extension presentations at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society at Cleveland NY from 8-12 August 2019. Designed, fabricated and tested UV arrays for plant disease suppression at Driscoll's Inc, Sierra Cascade Nurseries, Plant Sciences Nurseries, Cal Poly Strawberry Center at San Luis Obispo, SAGA Robotics, University of Florida GCREC, Bully Hill Vineyards, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and Murray Nurseries. Press releases in print and online form as follows: https://www.cornell.edu/video/uv-light-vs-powdery-mildew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTaW6YJVM9c https://cals.cornell.edu/news/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungal-fight/ https://twitter.com/Cornell/status/1124334622949761024 https://www.whec.com/news/cornell-crop-researchers-turn-to-uv-lights-to-cut-back-on-chemicals/5498191/ https://www.goodfruit.com/a-shot-in-the-dark/ https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/uv-light-can-kill-fungi-that-causes-powdery-mildew/ http://southeastagnet.com/2019/03/06/lights-out-diseases-pests-strawberries/ https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/uv-light-treatment-could-put-plant-pathogens-in-the-dark/ https://www.newswise.com/articles/uv-light-could-cut-costs-control-crop-diseases-in-fungus-fight https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/05/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungus-fight https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/strawberries-under-spotlight-pathogen-research-0 http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/05/uv-b-light-zaps-cucumber-disease https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/04/18/Florida-strawberry-farmers-using-robots-to-pick-fruit-controlmildew/ 4851555518101/ https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/this-robot-could-make-pesticides-obsolete/67-b27bace9-e178-461a-9231- 3063797f4176 https://www.mpnnow.com/news/20190924/crop-researchers-in-geneva-turning-to-uv-lights https://www.cornell.edu/video/uv-light-vs-powdery-mildew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTaW6YJVM9c https://cals.cornell.edu/news/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungal-fight/ https://twitter.com/Cornell/status/1124334622949761024 https://www.whec.com/news/cornell-crop-researchers-turn-to-uv-lights-to-cut-back-on-chemicals/5498191/ https://www.goodfruit.com/a-shot-in-the-dark/ https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/uv-light-can-kill-fungi-that-causes-powdery-mildew/ http://southeastagnet.com/2019/03/06/lights-out-diseases-pests-strawberries/ https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/uv-light-treatment-could-put-plant-pathogens-in-the-dark/ https://www.newswise.com/articles/uv-light-could-cut-costs-control-crop-diseases-in-fungus-fight https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/05/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungus-fight https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/strawberries-under-spotlight-pathogen-research-0 http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/05/uv-b-light-zaps-cucumber-disease https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/04/18/Florida-strawberry-farmers-using-robots-to-pick-fruit-control-mildew/4851555518101/ https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/this-robot-could-make-pesticides-obsolete/67-b27bace9-e178-461a-9231-3063797f4176 https://www.mpnnow.com/news/20190924/crop-researchers-in-geneva-turning-to-uv-lights https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/06/robots-armed-uv-light-fight-grape-mildew http://progressivecrop.com/2020/07/shining-light-on-powdery-mildew/ https://www.winespectator.com/articles/could-a-tool-to-combat-covid-also-protect-grapevines-from-mildew https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/ways-uv-light-is-exposing-fruit-pests-and-pathogens/ https://www.farmprogress.com/grapes/robots-shed-light-grape-powdery-mildew https://www.enn.com/articles/57871-uv-light-may-be-ripe-to-replace-chemicals-in-fungus-fight https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/newsroom/LDAHorticulture.pdf https://13wham.com/news/local/grape-mildew-has-a-new-enemy-in-the-finger-lakes-a-robot-named-thorvald https://www.inceptivemind.com/robots-fitted-uv-light-kill-powdery-mildew-vineyards/13634/ https://www.wine-business-international.com/wine/news/promising-new-treatment-against-fungal-diseases https://agreads.com/2020/10/18/uv-light-may-replace-chemicals-in-fungus-fight/ https://www.extension.iastate.edu/wine/using-ultraviolet-light-way-control-powdery-mildew Plantopia Podcasts Episode 14: The future looks bright (Rea, M., Stensvand, A., and Gadoury, D.M.). https://www.plantopiapodcast.org/14 13 January 2020: 10 minute video interview with Cornell University Board of Trustees on UV research. 27 January 2020: Seminar on Use of UV against strawberry powdery mildew presented to Nova Scotia Strawberry Growers Association, Halifax, NS, Canada. 19 February 2020: Seminar on Light and Plant Health, School of Integrative Plant Sciences, Cornell University. 25 February 2020: Cooperative Extension Service in-service training conference on uses of UV in suppression of powdery mildews, Albany NY 10 March 2020: USDA-SCRI FRAME advisory board meeting. Presented update on uses of UV for suppression of powdery mildews. 13 November 2020: New York State IPM Program in-service training and informational webinar: "What is IPM: Digital Tools, UV Lights, Urban Rats, and Invasive Fruit Flies", presentation entitled "Suppressing Plant Diseases with Light". https://cornell.zoom.us/w/91800616159?tk=IB4393J10IqekVxr_WYO9X1-VFBgn1bPyYlcXlY55zU.AG.oZvuF5q4r7a93plUyw_YI2oPHKKqFsgEgSTdIwYZSWir5iZxgWwDF_gkIPzDAPLSKeju_3AbSa5ov7TSPtixel5NR1ILasqu.HoilBGb6QAvcu_3aDK9STw.lDaj3QOLYJQ-5Jwt&pwd=M1NJeVRrQS95cCsyQ0ZXbzhDRWN1UT09 What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Conclusive demonstration that weekly exposures to UVC light at a dose of 100 J/m2 can effectively suppress strawberry powdery mildew to a level that is superior to that provided by the best available fungicides (i.e., Quintec+Torino). This was accomplished without phytotoxicity or reduced yield. Conclusive demonstration that the use of fluorocarbon plastics for tunnel or greenhouse construction can completely remove the stimulation of severity of powdery mildew that is inherent in such production systems; essentially returning disease levels to those observed in open field production. Conclusive demonstration that supplemental red light can suppress sporulation of basil downy mildew in glasshouse production. This likely has broad applicability in suppression of many downy mildews in such production systems. Demonstrated that exposure to UVC before infection could increase the resistance of grapevines leaves to downy mildew. In this case, the disease suppression is not a direct effect of the UV light on the pathogen, but through the effect of UV on increasing the resistance of leaves to infection. There was a substantial reduction of disease at both 100 and 200 J/m2 , and the level of disease suppression was comparable to that provided by the fungicide standard. The same low-level nighttime doses of UV light to effectively in destroy the eggs of various mite species that attack a broad range of important plants, both in controlled environments and in field production systems. We demonstrated that UV treatments reduce severity of the sour rot complex in grapevine. Sour rot has a complex etiology involving bacteria, fungi and fruit-feeding insects. We improved the efficiency of our UV arrays by adding a special reflecctive fabric designed for firefighting suits to the ends of the hemi-cylindrical array. The fabric is made of aluminum thread and reflects over 90% of UV. Adding these curtains increases the irradiance of the array by nearly 40%, and reduces variation in dose throughout the canopy of treated plants. It also allows a 40% increase in ground speed without adding more lamps. We expanded the UV trials to include winegrapes, and expanded our strawberry disease suppresison trials to include starwberry nurseries, and expanded to include west coast fruit production fields in California, and grape vineyards in Washington and Oregon.

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Peres, N.A., Turechek, W., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A. & Schnabel, G. 2019. Strategic management of multiple diseases in strawberry nurseries and production fields. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 11.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gadoury, D.M., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R.B. & Peres, N.A. 2019. Design and operational considerations for use of ultraviolet light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 15.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gadoury, D.M., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R.B. & Peres, N.A. 2019. Design and operational considerations for use of ultraviolet light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 15.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Asalf, B., Pathak, R., Gisler�d, H.R., Solhaug, K.A., From, P., Onofre, R., Peres, N.A., Turechek, W., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Cadle-Davidson, L. and Gadoury, D.M. 2019. Non-chemical control of powdery mildew in strawberry. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 16.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Aruppillai Suthaparan, Knut Asbj�rn Solhaug, Arne Stensvanda, Hans Ragnar Gisler�d. 2017. Daily light integral and day light quality: Potentials and pitfalls of nighttime UV treatments on cucumber powdery mildew. Journal of Photochemistry & Photobiology, B: Biology 175:141148.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gadoury. D.M. 2019. The Potential of Light Treatments to Suppress Certain Plant Pathogens and Pests. Appellation Cornell. Research Focus 2019-3:1-7.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Onofre, R.B., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A., Rea, M., and Peres, N. 2018. Powdery mildews in controlled environment agriculture systems: the underestimated role of light. Proc. 12th International Epidemiology Workshop. NIBIO Book Vol. 4(9):63.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Asalf, B., Pathak, R., Gisler�d, H.R., Solhaug, K.A., From, P., Onofre, R., Peres, N., Turechek, W., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Cadle Davidson, L., Gadoury, D.M. 2019. Alternative means to control powdery mildews. 51st Congress of the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology, Langebaan, South Africa, January 20  23, 2019. Book of Abstracts, p. 88.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Onofre, R.B., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A., Rea, M., Bierman, A., and Peres, N. 2019. Evaluation of UVC for suppression of powdery mildew and other diseases in open field strawberry production. Phytopathology 109.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.cornell.edu/video/uv-light-vs-powdery-mildew
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTaW6YJVM9c
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://cals.cornell.edu/news/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungal-fight/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://twitter.com/Cornell/status/1124334622949761024
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.whec.com/news/cornell-crop-researchers-turn-to-uv-lights-to-cut-back-on-chemicals/5498191/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.goodfruit.com/a-shot-in-the-dark/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/uv-light-can-kill-fungi-that-causes-powdery-mildew/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: http://southeastagnet.com/2019/03/06/lights-out-diseases-pests-strawberries/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/uv-light-treatment-could-put-plant-pathogens-in-the-dark/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/05/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungus-fight
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/strawberries-under-spotlight-pathogen-research-0
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/05/uv-b-light-zaps-cucumber-disease
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/04/18/Florida-strawberry-farmers-using-robots-to-pick-fruit-controlmildew/ 4851555518101/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.newswise.com/articles/uv-light-could-cut-costs-control-crop-diseases-in-fungus-fight
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/this-robot-could-make-pesticides-obsolete/67-b27bace9-e178-461a-9231- 3063797f4176
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.mpnnow.com/news/20190924/crop-researchers-in-geneva-turning-to-uv-lights
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Onofre, R. B., Gadoury, D. M., Stensvand, A., Bierman, A., Rea, M., and Peres, N. A. 2020. Use of ultraviolet light to suppress powdery mildew in strawberry fruit production fields. Plant Dis. 104.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Suthaparan, A., Solhaug, K.A., Bjugstad, N., Gisler�d, H.R., Gadoury, D.M., and Stensvand, A. 2016. Suppression of powdery mildews by UV-B: Application frequency and timing, dose, reflectance, andautomation. Plant Dis. 100:1643-1650.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Gisler�d, H.R. and Gadoury, D.M. 2016. Status for bruk av UV og lys mot mj�ldogg. Gartneryrket 114:44-45.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bierman, A., Radetsky, L., Patel, J. S., Figueiro, M., Plummer, T., Rea, M., Gadoury, D. M., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., Peres, N., and Onofre, R. 2017. Practical and accurate measurement of ultraviolet radiation for research and application in plant pathosystems. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A. Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R. B., and Peres, N. 2017. Design and operational considerations for use of UV and red light for suppression of plant diseases under field conditions. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Johansen, N. S., Asalf, B., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., From, P. J., and Gadoury, D. M. 2017. Nighttime treatments of ultraviolet (UV) light targeting powdery mildews also suppress the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae). Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: McCann, T., Carter, M., Gadoury, D. M., and Rea, M. 2017. Radiant energy thresholds and spectral distribution of light as regulatory factors in sporulation of Erysiphe necator. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Onofre, R. B., Vieira, R. L., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D. M., and Peres, N. 2017. Severity of strawberry powdery mildew in open field vs under plastics that either block or transmit UV light. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Patel, J. S., Radetsky, L., Plummer, T., Bierman, A., Gadoury, D., and Rea, M. S. 2017. Pre-inoculation treatment of basil plants with ultraviolet-B radiation induces resistance to downy mildew. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., From, P., Grimstad, L., Bjugstad, N., Solhaug, K. A., Gisler�d, H. R., Johansen, N. S., Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2017. Design and operation of static and mobile arrays to suppress powdery mildews in greenhouse and tunnel production systems with UV and visible light. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Suthaparan, A., Solhaug, K. A., Giselr�d, H. R., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2017. Modeling Daytime Light Integral and light quality effects to optimize suppression of powdery mildews by nighttime applications of UV and red light. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107.


Progress 09/01/18 to 08/31/19

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are broad and hierarchical. Within the scientific community, the targets are peer scientists in the discipline of plant pathology and allied pest management professions of entomology and weed science. The light-based technologies have been discovered to have relevance and efficacy outside of plant pathology. Current research project have expanded to include suppression of arthropods pests. Target audiences also include graduate and undergraduate students, crop advisors, Extension specialists, commodity specialists, and private consultants. Outside the domain of scientific and advisory populations, the target audiences are lighting manufacturing companies and scientists, and the greenhouse and high-tunnel construction industry. At the level of primary producers, our target audience includes a broad range of growers of high value fruit and vegetable crops, with research and demonstration projects underway for this reporting period in strawberry, grape, cucurbits, rose, rosemary, basil, hemp, and hops in several US states, and in Norway and England. Changes/Problems:We have requested a 1 yr no-cost extension of the project term to allow us to more effectively reach additional members of the stakeholder community and set up additional demonstration trials of the technolgy using residual funds of the project. This extension will also allow us to capitalize on newly-discovered activity of UV against insect pests and downy mildew, and may also reveal additional pest and disease applications in the final year of the project. Recent promotional activity has greatly increased the visibility of the USDA-OREI project within both the organic community and within the conventional agriculturist community. We can build upon this success by continuning our work for an additional 12 months at no additional cost. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has served as the thesis research for a masters student at Cornell (Tyler McCann), a PhD student at UFL (Rodrigo Onofre), and a PhD student at Cornell (Allie Calla). In addition, the project has served as an REU project for six undergarduates in 2018 and 2019, all of whom are now in the process of applying for graduate training in plant protection at US Land Grant Universities based upon their experiences. The numerous public presentations, web news releases, and extension field days have served to incresase the general knowledge and competency of grower stakeholders and advisory personnel in light and plant health. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Advised in the design and operation of mobile lighting units for use on strawberry in CA and FL, in the design of field plots for evaluation of the technology against strawberry powdery mildew, and in the collection and analysis of data on treatment efficacy. Participated in a Controlled Environment Agriculture workshop at Cornell/Geneva on April 25 2019 for 98 stakeholders from academia, USDA, and the private sector, and presented a research and extension seminar entitled "Light and plant health: new approaches to disease and pest suppression". Presented research and extension results at NASGA/NASS National Conference in Orlando, FL in seminar entitled "Design and operational considerations for use of UV light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions", 5 February 2019. Presented research and extension results at USDA-SCRI FRAME conference in Prosser, WA entitled "Design and operational considerations for use of ultraviolet light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions." On February 27th, 2019. Conference with Driscoll's Executive Vice President Scott Komar to review future UV field experiments on strawberry in the Eastern US and CA on 17 May 2019. Conducted research and demonstration tours of UV and visible light enabled greenhouse sections at Cornell/Geneva for grower and stakeholder for the following groups: Controlled Environment Agriculture/GLASE, UFL-GCREC, Geneva Summer Scholars Program, and New York State Center of Excellence for Food and Agriculture. Coauthorship of research and extension presentations at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society at Cleveland NY from 8-12 August 2019. Participated in design and facilitated fabrication and testing of UV arrays for plant disease suppression at Driscoll's Inc, Sierra Cascade Nurseries, Plant Sciences Nurseries, Cal Poly Strawberry Center at San Luis Obispo, SAGA Robotics, University of Florida GCREC, Bully Hill Vineyards, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, and Murray Nurseries. Press releases in print and online form as follows: https://www.cornell.edu/video/uv-light-vs-powdery-mildew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTaW6YJVM9c https://cals.cornell.edu/news/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungal-fight/ https://twitter.com/Cornell/status/1124334622949761024 https://www.whec.com/news/cornell-crop-researchers-turn-to-uv-lights-to-cut-back-on-chemicals/5498191/ https://www.goodfruit.com/a-shot-in-the-dark/ https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/uv-light-can-kill-fungi-that-causes-powdery-mildew/ http://southeastagnet.com/2019/03/06/lights-out-diseases-pests-strawberries/ https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/uv-light-treatment-could-put-plant-pathogens-in-the-dark/ https://www.newswise.com/articles/uv-light-could-cut-costs-control-crop-diseases-in-fungus-fight https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/05/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungus-fight https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/strawberries-under-spotlight-pathogen-research-0 http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/05/uv-b-light-zaps-cucumber-disease https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/04/18/Florida-strawberry-farmers-using-robots-to-pick-fruit-control-mildew/4851555518101/ https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/this-robot-could-make-pesticides-obsolete/67-b27bace9-e178-461a-9231-3063797f4176 https://www.mpnnow.com/news/20190924/crop-researchers-in-geneva-turning-to-uv-lights What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Complete the buildout of the Light and Plant Health website to be a clearinghouse for information of value to stakeholders in the research and end-user community, and a resource to train others in the uses of technology for light and plant health. Complete collaborations with manufactures to bring commercial light-based therapy units to the market. Complete research publications to provide a solid foundation of experimental data upon which this technology can build. Continue to offer assistance to early-adopters of light-based technologies to expand visibility of the project and attract additional interest from equipment manufacturers. Expand studies of newly-discovered applications of UV light against arthropod pests, as well as additional fungal and bacterial diseases of fruit crops. Compare and contrast the applicaitons of tractor-drawn and fully autonomous robotic UV arrays.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Demonstrated that exposure to UVC before infection could increase the resistance of grapevines leaves to downy mildew. In this case, the disease suppression is not a direct effect of the UV light on the pathogen, but through the effect of UV on increasing the resistance of leaves to infection. There was a substantial reduction of disease at both 100 and 200 J/m2 , and the level of disease suppression was comparable to that provided by the fungicide standard. The same low-level nighttime doses of UV light to effectively in destroy the eggs of various mite species that attack a broad range of important plants, both in controlled environments and in field production systems. We demonstrated that UV treatments reduce severity of the sour rot complex in grapevine. Sour rot has a complex etiology involving bacteria, fungi and fruit-feeding insects. We improved the efficiency of our UV arrays by adding a special reflecctive fabric designed for firefighting suits to the ends of the hemi-cylindrical array. The fabric is made of aluminum thread and reflects over 90% of UV. Adding these curtains increases the irradiance of the array by nearly 40%, and reduces variation in dose throughout the canopy of treated plants. It also allows a 40% increase in ground speed without adding more lamps. We expanded the UV trials to include winegrapes, and expanded our strawberry disease suppresison trials to include starwberry nurseries, and expanded to include west coast fruit production fields in California, and grape vineyards in Washington and Oregon.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gadoury. D.M. 2019. The Potential of Light Treatments to Suppress Certain Plant Pathogens and Pests. Appellation Cornell. Research Focus 2019-3:1-7.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Onofre, R.B., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A., Rea, M., and Peres, N. 2018. Powdery mildews in controlled environment agriculture systems: the underestimated role of light. Proc. 12th International Epidemiology Workshop. NIBIO Book Vol. 4(9):63.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Asalf, B., Pathak, R., Gisler�d, H.R., Solhaug, K.A., From, P., Onofre, R., Peres, N., Turechek, W., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Cadle Davidson, L., Gadoury, D.M. 2019. Alternative means to control powdery mildews. 51st Congress of the Southern African Society for Plant Pathology, Langebaan, South Africa, January 20  23, 2019. Book of Abstracts, p. 88.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: Onofre, R.B., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A., Rea, M., Bierman, A., and Peres, N. 2019. Evaluation of UVC for suppression of powdery mildew and other diseases in open field strawberry production. Phytopathology 109:0000 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Peres, N.A., Turechek, W., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A. & Schnabel, G. 2019. Strategic management of multiple diseases in strawberry nurseries and production fields. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 11.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gadoury, D.M., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R.B. & Peres, N.A. 2019. Design and operational considerations for use of ultraviolet light for disease and pest suppression under field conditions. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 15.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Asalf, B., Pathak, R., Gisler�d, H.R., Solhaug, K.A., From, P., Onofre, R., Peres, N.A., Turechek, W., Bierman, A., Rea, M., Cadle-Davidson, L. and Gadoury, D.M. 2019. Non-chemical control of powdery mildew in strawberry. 9th North American Strawberry Symposium. Orlando, Florida, February 3  6, 2019. Book of abstracts, p. 16.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.cornell.edu/video/uv-light-vs-powdery-mildew
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTaW6YJVM9c
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://cals.cornell.edu/news/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungal-fight/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://twitter.com/Cornell/status/1124334622949761024
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.whec.com/news/cornell-crop-researchers-turn-to-uv-lights-to-cut-back-on-chemicals/5498191/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.goodfruit.com/a-shot-in-the-dark/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/uv-light-can-kill-fungi-that-causes-powdery-mildew/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: http://southeastagnet.com/2019/03/06/lights-out-diseases-pests-strawberries/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.growingproduce.com/fruits/uv-light-treatment-could-put-plant-pathogens-in-the-dark/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.newswise.com/articles/uv-light-could-cut-costs-control-crop-diseases-in-fungus-fight
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/05/uv-light-may-be-ripe-replace-chemicals-fungus-fight
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/strawberries-under-spotlight-pathogen-research-0
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/05/uv-b-light-zaps-cucumber-disease
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/04/18/Florida-strawberry-farmers-using-robots-to-pick-fruit-control-mildew/4851555518101/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/nation-world/this-robot-could-make-pesticides-obsolete/67-b27bace9-e178-461a-9231-3063797f4176
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://www.mpnnow.com/news/20190924/crop-researchers-in-geneva-turning-to-uv-lights


Progress 09/01/17 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences of this project are broad and hierarchical. Within the scientific community, the targets are peer scientists in the discipline of plant pathology and allied pest management professions of entomology and weed science. The light-based technologies have been discovered to have relevance and efficacy outside of plant pathology. Target audiences also include graduate and undergraduate students, crop advisors, Extension specialists, commodity specialists, and private consultants. Outside the domain scientific and advisory populations, the target audiences are lighting manufacturing companies and scientists, and the greenhouse and high-tunnel construction industry. At the level of primary producers, our target audience includes a broad range of growers of high value fruit and vegetable crops, with research and demonstration projects underway for this reporting period in strawberry, grape, and hops in several US states, and in Norway and England. Changes/Problems: We applied for and received a 1-yr NCE for this project. This was based upon reduced costs in year 1 which allowed expanded work with no increase in budget. The breakthrough discovery of the degree of efficacy of fluorocarbon plastics in reducing the severity of powdery mildew has caused us to increase our study of the effects of weathered polyethylene films on light transmission. It is common for high tunnels and plastic greenhouses to use polyethylene films for 3-4 years. We hypothesize based on preliminary data, that changes in the spectral distribution of weather poly films is favorable to disease development due to changes in key parts of the visible light spectrum, as well as exclusion of natural sources of UV. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Training activities The graduate student assigned to investigate reciprocity as his thesis project (Tyler McCann) has completed his research and successfully defended his thesis and will graduate from Cornell University in January 2019. The graduate student (Rodrigo Onofre) at UFL-GCREC is continuing to develop skills in operating the robotic systems as part of his thesis research, and has spent a summer with our collaborators at NIBIO/Norway to expand this research within his dissertation work. Professional Development Both graduate students (Tyler McCann at Cornell and Rodrigo Onofre at UFL) presented there thesis research at the International Congress of Plant Pathology in Boston MA in July 2018. See publications list. The UFL student (Rodrigo Onofre) presented his research at the International Epidemiology Conference in Lillehammer Norway in June 2018. See publications list. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The following information was also listed under Target Audiences: Efforts We created the website LightAndPlantHealth.org to serve as a repository of project results and one-stop-shop for those interested in building and demonstrating the light-based pest suppression technologies developed thus far as part of our project. We conducted public demonstration trials using mobile UV arrays for grapes and hops at NYSAES Geneva. We began two public demonstration trials using mobile autonomous robotic UV arrays for strawberries at the UFL Gulf Coast Research and Education Center, and at Wish Farm in Plant City, FL; Florida's largest grower of organic strawberries. We presented the project results to Driscolls Berries, the largest US consolidator and retailer of berry crops. Driscolls is now an active partner in the project in the design and conduct of UV trials for suppression of powdery mildew in FL and CA. Project results have been presented at conferences of the North American Strawberry Growers, and the North American Strawberry Symposium. Project results have been presented at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society and the International Congress of Plant Pathology. Two UV-light research and demonstration greenhouses are now in continuous operation at Cornell Geneva, with two additional UV-light greenhouses at the co-located USDA Grape Genetics Research Facility. Both have been featured in numerous tours of NYSAES and USDA-GGRU during 2018. Project results were presented to a national meeting of lighting manufacturers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center on 5-6 September 2018. In cooperation with SAGA robotics, we developed a UV lighting array for a semi-autonomous robot that can treat large acreages without a human operator. The unit is now in operation at Wish Farm in FL. Conference presentation: General Electric Conference: Lighting for plant health Conference presentation: Lightfair-Chicago: Seeing red: how long-wavelength light can impact humans, plants and animals Conference presentation: OSRAM Conference, Munich, Germany: An overview of recent light and plant health projects at the lighting research center Conference presentation: Utrecht, Netherlands: Horticultural Lighting/Europe: Light's role in controlling plant pathogens What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We continue to collect a database of transmissibility of all common plastic materials used for construction of greenhouses and high tunnels. We will complete trials on UV suppression of grapevine powdery mildew in WA, OR, and NY, and trials on suppression of hop powdery mildew and mites by UV in NY. Continue to add content to Light and Plant Health website.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Conclusive demonstration that weekly exposures to UVC light at a dose of 100 J/m2 can effectively suppress strawberry powdery mildew to a level that is superior to that provided by the best available fungicides (i.e., Quintec+Torino). This was accomplished without phytotoxicity or reduced yield. Conclusive demonstration that the use of fluorocarbon plastics for tunnel or greenhouse construction can completely remove the stimulation of severity of powdery mildew that is inherent in such production systems; essentially returning disease levels to those observed in open field production. Conclusive demonstration that supplemental red light can suppress sporulation of basil downy mildew in glasshouse production. This likely has broad applicability in suppression of many downy mildews in such production systems. Key outcomes Within the range of irradiance values to be anticipated in UV arrays that will be used for mobile apparatus, reciprocity of irradiance and time of exposure does not differ to the degree that it would complicate design of either tractor-drawn or autonomous robotic units.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Onofre, R.B., Gatto, J.B., Marin, M., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A., Rea, M., Bierman, A., and Peres, N. 2018. Design, operation and efficacy of an apparatus using ultraviolet light to suppress powdery mildew of strawberry in open field production systems. Phytopathology 108:S1.165.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: McCann, T., Gadoury, D.M., Stensvand, A., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2018. Calculation of dose and projected efficacy when using visible or UV light to suppress plant pathogens. Phytopathology 108:S1.300.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2018 Citation: Onofre, R.O., Vieira, R.L., Gadoury, D.M., and Peres, N. 2018. Patterns of airborne inoculum dose exhibited by populations of Podosphaera aphanis in open fields and high tunnel production systems. Phytopathology (Abstr) APS Southern Division, Fayetteville, AK, Feb. 16-18, 2018.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bierman, A., Radetsky, L., Patel, J. S., Figueiro, M., Plummer, T., Rea, M., Gadoury, D. M., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., Peres, N., and Onofre, R. 2017. Practical and accurate measurement of ultraviolet radiation for research and application in plant pathosystems. Phytopathology 107:S5.48.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A. Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R. B., and Peres, N. 2017. Design and operational considerations for use of UV and red light for suppression of plant diseases under field conditions. Phytopathology 107:S5.5.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Johansen, N. S., Asalf, B., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., From, P. J., and Gadoury, D. M. 2017. Nighttime treatments of ultraviolet (UV) light targeting powdery mildews also suppress the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae). Phytopathology 107:S5.77.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: McCann, T., Carter, M., Gadoury, D. M., and Rea, M. 2017. Radiant energy thresholds and spectral distribution of light as regulatory factors in sporulation of Erysiphe necator. Phytopathology 107:S5.10.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Onofre, R. B., Vieira, R. L., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D. M., and Peres, N. 2017. Severity of strawberry powdery mildew in open field vs under plastics that either block or transmit UV light. Phytopathology 107:S5.49.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Onofre, R., Cordova, L., Tadesse, B.A., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D.M., and Peres, N. 2017. Resistance-proof approaches to suppression of strawberry powdery mildew. Phytopathology 107:S3.2.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Patel, J. S., Radetsky, L., Plummer, T., Bierman, A., Gadoury, D., and Rea, M. S. 2017. Pre-inoculation treatment of basil plants with ultraviolet-B radiation induces resistance to downy mildew. Phytopathology 107:S5.52.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., From, P., Grimstad, L., Bjugstad, N., Solhaug, K. A., Gisler�d, H. R., Johansen, N. S., Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2017. Design and operation of static and mobile arrays to suppress powdery mildews in greenhouse and tunnel production systems with UV and visible light. Phytopathology 107:S5.47.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Suthaparan, A., Solhaug, K. A., Giselr�d, H. R., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2017. Modeling Daytime Light Integral and light quality effects to optimize suppression of powdery mildews by nighttime applications of UV and red light. Phytopathology 107:S5.77.


Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:One of the first steps in moving a new technology and strategy into common practice is to raise the level of interest and excitement in the target population. This is "creating the buzz": the initial interaction of consumers of a technology that amplifies the original message. In the previous 12 months, this has been the focus of project activity with respect to target audiences. Our audiences during this period were expanded beyond end-users of the technology in the organic communitity that were the focus of our year-1 activities. In year 2, we focused upon contact and creation of collaborative relationships withing the scientific, advisory and technology/manufacturing community. We presented nine published presentations (Bierman et al 2017; Gadoury et al 2017; Johansen et al. 2017; McCann et al. 2017; Onofre et al. 2017; Patel et al. 2017; Pathak et al. 2017; Stensvand et al. 2017; Suthaparan et al. 2017) on the technology at the 2017 meeting of the American Phytopathological Society in San Antonio, Texas (http://www.apsnet.org/meetings/annual/Pages/default.aspx). At the same venue, we hosted an Idea Cafe, wherein we solicited interested parties among the 1500 attendees to visit with project personnel (Gadoury, Rea, Peres, Onofre, and Cadle-Davidson) to ask questions and discuss concepts of Light and Plant Health for diverse applications. We furthermore secured a special symposium session at the International Congress of Plant Pathology on the topic of ""Why Light Matters: new concepts, tools, and practices to suppress plant pathogens and enhance plant health". Project results were presented at meetings of the NY Horticulture Society and the North American Strawberry Growers in 2017. Finally, we assembled a group of over 100 lighting technology manufacturers for a 2-day conferece at the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY (http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/newsroom/pr_story.asp?id=370#.WcAMUDlryRY) where we presesented project results and discussed opportunities for development of new products with industry representatives from General Electric, Sylvania, Osram, Phillips, and several other leading companies in the field of lighting for horticultural applications. We also presented project results at major horticultural lighting conferences in the US (Chicago, October 2016) and in Europe (Eindhoven, The Netherlands, May 2017). Evidence of the efficacy of this target audience contact includes initial collborative arrangements with commercial producers of hops, grapes, peanuts, and strawberries to produce working UV field units for trials. As a consequence of these contacts, we are also now working with Wish Farm LLC, the largest producer of organic strawberries in the eastern US, and with Driscolls, the largest US producer and marketer of strawberries to adapt UV and red light units for organic production on a large scale. We are also in the inital discussions of development of trials with Google X (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_(company)), the technology innovation foundation of Google that specializes in exploration of the intersections of a big problem, a radical solution, and breakthrough technology. Changes/Problems:Discovery of the issue of lack of dose reciprocity with respect to source intensity and duration of exposure has yielded and unexpected benefit (Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A. Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R. B., and Peres, N. 2017. Design and operational considerations for use of UV and red light for suppression of plant diseases under field conditions. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107). For example: 1 watt per square meter for 2 seconds is the same UV dose as 2 watts per square meter for 1 second. However, we discovered that higher intensity sources allow us to decrease the cumulative dose. This has lead to a breakthrough in design of equipment for field applicaitons, as a prior limitiation was low ground speed. By increasing lamp number and through improved reflector desgn, we can now produce units that can operate at speeds of over 5 kph; well within the normal operating speeds for tractor-drawn equipment used for farm operations. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Embedded withing the project structure are two PhD students (Tyler McCann at Cornell and Rodrigo Onofre at UFL). Their thesis research is directly aligned with the project objectives and long-term goal. In addition to the PhD students, we now pair each student with an undergraduate scholar recruited through the Cornell Summer Scholar's program (https://scholars.pppmb.cals.cornell.edu/). To date, we have mentored Mariama Carter, who as a consequence of her internship, was recruited by the PhD program in plant pathology at the University of Wisconsin. We also mentored Franca Rossi, who served her internship with project personnel overseas at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and now works as a plant pathologist for Driscoll's Inc, and is our principal contact for UV field trials at Driscoll. During the past summer, our undergraduate intern was Matthew Cullen, who attended the national APS meeting in San Antonio, TX in August 2017 to participate in project activities there. Mr Cullen is now applying to a number of leading plant pathology graduate programs based upon his experiences in the internship program. In addition to targeted undergraduate mentoring, we have also engaged in developing more access to curated and vetted information on the use of UV and lighting technology through the development of the Light and Plant Health initiative centered at RPI, and the creation of a website (htpp://www:LightAndPlantHealth.org) as a clearinghouse for information for those interested in how to use light to suppress plant diseases and pests. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our outreach efforts have focused on three principal stakeholder communities, with specific actions designed to optimally reach these target audiences. First, we have disseminated project results and created awareness of the technology within our peer scientist and student groups through numerous presentation at our national professional meeting (APS in San Antonio), by orgainizing and chairing interactive forums at this meeting (e.g.,the 2017 Idea Cafe on Light and Plant Health), and through publication of project results in the top peer reviewed journal of our profession (Phytopathology). Next, we have engaged primary crop producers and extension educators by presentations at large confernces, including the North Amercian Starwberry Growers, the Horticultural Society, the Northeast Hop Alliance, the Florida Stawberry Growers, the Driscoll's Nursery Conference, and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. Lastly, we have engaged over 100 representative from lighting manufacturers through a 2-day workshop at the RPI Lighting Research Center to disseminate information on opportunities for product development in the area of Light and Plant Health. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are collecting a database of transmissibility of all common materials (both new and photodegraded and aged) used for contstruction of glasshouses, high and low tunnel systems, and plant factories. Once assembled, we will be in a position to provide advice to growers extention personnel, and manufacturers on the biological effects of light modification upon pathogens within such growing systems. We are also evaluating spectra produced by artifical lighting sources for the same purpose. We are presently developing a workshop/symposium to be held at the International Congress of Plant Pathology in Boston in 2018 entitled "Why Light Matters: new concepts, tools, and practices to suppress plant pathogens and enhance plant health". We continue to add content to our project clearinghouse website: LightAndPlantHealth.org, and will use this as the venue for authoritative information on application of this technology, for all project results, for educational materials, and for research and extension publications. We are in the process of establishing larger-scale research and demonstration projects wherein fluorocarbon plastics will be evaluated for suppression of powdery mildews due to superior transmissibility of natural UV. We are in negotiaitons with Asahi Glass Company (http://www.f-clean.nl/), a leading manufacturer of fluorocarbon plastics for horticulture to establish collaborative research and demonstration high tunnel systems to to educate stakeholders on how light transmissibiliyt of plastics can be used not only to promote plant growth, but to decrease disease and pest severity.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Pathogens have evolved over millions of years amidst endless cycles of light and darkness. They can sense, interpret and use light to direct their development, much as plants do. We are now at the point where we understand how pathogens use light, and we are using those evolved relationships against them. For example, their defense against natural ultraviolet light (UV) is to biochemically repair the damage caused by UV at the cellular level. The cellular machinery that makes those repairs is upregulated by blue light and downregulated by red light and during darkness. So, when we hit pathogens with UV at night, they are defenseless, and we can use very small doses of UV to kill them and prevent disease. Add nighttime red light to the mix, and we can make the nighttime UV treatments even more effective in suppressing disease. In 2017, we were able to suppress one of the most destructive diseases of strawberries (powdery mildew) at the commercial produciton level using only nighttime applications of UV light. This is the first tiem that lighting technology has been used on such a large scale, was conducted on a commercial farm in Florida by one of their largest growers. We designed the tractor-drawn unit, but it was built and operated by the farm crew at Wish Farm LLC (https://wishfarms.com/). The treatments suppressed powdery mildew better than the best available fungicides, and did so with no damage to the berries, and without reducing yield. In the process of designing the UV treatment system, we learned a great deal about the essential biological and engineering elements for field equipment, and incorporated these into educational workshops (http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/resources/newsroom/pr_story.asp?id=370#.WcAMUDlryRY) and presentations (https://www.apsnet.org/publications/Webinars/Pages/2017video.aspx?LID=Paper5242.mp4) to teach others what we have learned about applying this technology. As a consequence of our field trials with new UV-transmitting fluorocarbon plastics, we have demonstrated a reduction in powdery mildew severity simply due to using a plastic film that does not block natural UV in sunlight. These plastics have been available for years, but have never been investigated to demonstrate their benefits in disease suppression.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Suthaparan, A., Solhaug, K.A., Bjugstad, N., Gisler�d, H.R., Gadoury, D.M., and Stensvand, A. 2016. Suppression of powdery mildews by UV-B: Application frequency and timing, dose, reflectance, andautomation. Plant Dis. 100:1643-1650.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Gisler�d, H.R. and Gadoury, D.M. 2016. Status for bruk av UV og lys mot mj�ldogg. Gartneryrket 114:44-45.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2107 Citation: Bierman, A., Radetsky, L., Patel, J. S., Figueiro, M., Plummer, T., Rea, M., Gadoury, D. M., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., Peres, N., and Onofre, R. 2017. Practical and accurate measurement of ultraviolet radiation for research and application in plant pathosystems. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A. Rea, M., Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., Onofre, R. B., and Peres, N. 2017. Design and operational considerations for use of UV and red light for suppression of plant diseases under field conditions. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Johansen, N. S., Asalf, B., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., From, P. J., and Gadoury, D. M. 2017. Nighttime treatments of ultraviolet (UV) light targeting powdery mildews also suppress the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae). Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: McCann, T., Carter, M., Gadoury, D. M., and Rea, M. 2017. Radiant energy thresholds and spectral distribution of light as regulatory factors in sporulation of Erysiphe necator. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Onofre, R. B., Vieira, R. L., Suthaparan, A., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D. M., and Peres, N. 2017. Severity of strawberry powdery mildew in open field vs under plastics that either block or transmit UV light. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Patel, J. S., Radetsky, L., Plummer, T., Bierman, A., Gadoury, D., and Rea, M. S. 2017. Pre-inoculation treatment of basil plants with ultraviolet-B radiation induces resistance to downy mildew. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Stensvand, A., Suthaparan, A., From, P., Grimstad, L., Bjugstad, N., Solhaug, K. A., Gisler�d, H. R., Johansen, N. S., Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2017. Design and operation of static and mobile arrays to suppress powdery mildews in greenhouse and tunnel production systems with UV and visible light. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Aruppillai Suthaparan, Knut Asbj�rn Solhaug, Arne Stensvanda, Hans Ragnar Gisler�d. 2017. Daily light integral and day light quality: Potentials and pitfalls of nighttime UV treatments on cucumber powdery mildew. Journal of Photochemistry & Photobiology, B: Biology 175:141148.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Suthaparan, A., Solhaug, K. A., Giselr�d, H. R., Stensvand, A., Gadoury, D. M., Bierman, A., and Rea, M. 2017. Modeling Daytime Light Integral and light quality effects to optimize suppression of powdery mildews by nighttime applications of UV and red light. Phytopathology (abstr.) Vol. 107 (in press).


Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Project leaders (Gadoury, Seem, Rea, Figuiero, Stensvand, and Suthaparan) met with members of the Advisory Committee (Sideman, Petersen, and Myhrene) at Death Valley CA in February 2016 for 3 days to discuss project goals and activities for Years 1 and 2. Priorites were development of field apparatus for UVC applicaitons, construciton of a robotic device for UVB greenhouse applicaitons, and construction of two greenhouse sections for stationary permanent setups of UVB and LED lighting systems for disease suppression. These were completed by December 2016. Target audiences reached included included the Advisory Committee, peer scientists at the annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society in Tampa FL, Wish farm, Inc (the largest US producer of organic strawberries), Driscolls Inc, and the annual meeting of the North American Strawberry Growers Association. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A PhD student at the University of Florida is supervising the UVC efficacy trial in the commercial starwberry planting. The project has served as the focus for 4 undergraduate scholars during summer internships at Cornell University. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Presentations to the stakeholder community at the Northeast Strawberry Growers Associaiton annual meeting in Savannah GA. Popular articles in trade journals. Presentations at the national meeitng of the American Phytopathological Assciation. Presentations at the annual meeting of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Complete experiments on use of red light in combination with UV light for enhanced suppression. Use "false dawn" stimuli to disrupt circadian rhythms in plant pathogens to suppress spore production. Examine relative transmissibility of commonly used geenhouse plastics and high-UV transmissibility plastics for biologically active screening of intercepted light.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A robotic unit equipped with UVB lamps was used to sucessfully suppress powdery mildew in commercial greenhouse production of cucumbers. A field unit was designed, built, and deployed to sucessfully suppress powdery mildew of strawberries in a commercial organic production system in Florida. NOFA was engaged and has allowed the use of UV light and LED technology for disease suppression under organic standards. Two UVB/LED demonstration and research greenhouses were constructed and opened for use and viewing at Cornell University's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY.

Publications