Acibenzolar-S-methyl may prevent vector-mediated flavescence dorée phytoplasma transmission, but is ineffective in inducing recovery of infected grapevines.

Background: Acibenzolar-S-methyl (BTH), a functional analogue of salicylic acid (SA), is known to elicit a systemic resistance across a broad range of plant-pathogen interactions, but so far it has not been tested against flavescence dorée (FDP), one of the most devastating grapevine diseases. The aim of this work was to evaluate the activity of BTH in preventing FDP transmission by the insect vector and in inducing recovery of infected grapevines.

Results: Repeated 2 mM applications of BTH to test grapevine cuttings (cv.

Adaptation of indigenous larval parasitoids to Tuta absoluta (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) in Italy.

Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is a serious threat to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) crops in South America. In Europe, after its first detection in Spain in 2006, it rapidly spread through the Mediterranean basin, reaching Italy 2 yr later.

Usability study of a vineyard teleoperated compost spreader.

Teleoperation has been widely applied in modern industry because of a variety of advantages, such as providing replaceable surrogates for humans in dangerous or difficult working environments over long distances. In this paper, a usability evaluation study of a teleoperation system for a compost spreader robotic machine is presented. The machine has been designed for the application of compost in small and stepping parcels of hilly vineyards.