SOURCES AND CONCENTRATIONS OF CUPRIC FUNGICIDES FOR THE CONTROL OF CITRUS BLACK SPOT1

ABSTRACT Citrus black spot (CBS) is a severe disease for citriculture in the São Paulo State, Brazil. Part of its management is focused on chemical control using cupric fungicides and strobilurins. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the efficacy of three sources and three concentrations of cupric fungicides (copper hydroxide, copper oxychloride and cuprous oxide). Orange fruits of the Pera cultivar were bagged in the plants and the treatment with cupric fungicide was applied. The fruits were inoculated (by spray) with Phyllosticta citricarpa (1×104 conidia mL-1) after 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days, and bagged again. The evaluation of incidence and severity was did at the harvest time of fruits. A second experiment was conducted under natural infection with the same treatments, consisting of application of fungicides at the stages F1 (petal fall) and F2 (fruits with diameter of 1 cm), using mechanized sprayer with mean flow of 7.35 L solution plant-1. Subsequently, all treatments received four applications of azoxystrobin (30 g ha-1), plus mineral oil at 0.25%. Four monthly evaluations were done to determine the CBS incidence and severity. The initial applications with cupric fungicides are essential for the control of CBS; the fungicide copper hydroxide showed the best control of CBS with the lowest rate of metallic copper (43.7 g of Cu++ 100 L-1) in both experiments, regardless of the conduction conditions.