Gray Mold (Botrytis cinerea) Disease Progress on Tomato Fruits in Different Packaging

This research is focusing on observing the growth progress of Botrytis cinerea on tomato fruits. Tomato fruits are one of the commercial fruits that often infected by Botrytis cinerea whether in the field or in the storage. Different packaging was used to find any differences that might occur during storage. The objectives of this research were to study the differences of spore spreading progress of B. cinerea on tomato fruits in different packaging storage and to analyze the disease incidence and severity during different packaging storage. The packaging used in this research were the cardboard box, plastic fruit container, and plastic zip lock bag. B. cinerea fungus was inoculated
directly to the fresh tomatoes. After that, each packaging tomatoes was stored in the controlled environment and the progress was observed within a fixed time. Every three days, the inoculations of the Botrytis cinerea on the tomato were observed by using severity index scale. The disease incidence and severity were calculated and expressed in percentage. The percentage of incidence and severity were increased progressively and shows that the inoculated fruits were infected. Through this study, the progress of
B. cinerea spore spread was observed and analyzed where most of the tomatoes in each packaging shows show symptoms as early as day three. The tomatoes in the packaging cardboard box and plastic fruit container were 100% severed until the day 30 but tomatoes in plastic zip lock bag were not fully severed until the last day of observation.