POSTHARVEST DISEASES AND STORAGE CONDITIONS IN BUTTERNUT SQUASH (CUCURBITA MOSCHATA DUCH.) IN ARGENTINA
"We must not forget that first of all we research in postharvest, to preserve foods and it is necessary, if we wish to conclude our research, that those foods must reach the people".
Argentina is about two and a half million kms square.
We have about five hundred thousand hectares under vegetables and generally speaking we provide vegetables for the entire country, thirty five million people, and to a lesser extent for export.
Butternut squash represents 90 % of the total of squashes traded in the Central Market of Buenos Aires (MCBA); thirty thousand ha of this crop are sown annually (0.015 % of the total surface of the country), with a production figure of 450.000 t.
The crop is grown in many areas of the country under varying conditions. Food marketed at Buenos Aires wholesale level is distributed throughout an urban area of twelve million inhabitants. Butternut squash has proved popular among consumers because of its flavour and culinary properties. Consumption of butternut squash for the last ten years has been high.
To supply market requirements during the whole year, squash is stored for as long as seven to eight months, with consequent disease problems.
Squash is stored during the fall and winter seasons (March to September) in dry areas of Cuyo region, in piles in the field, or in sheds without humidity or temperature control. In high humidity areas of the Pampas region it is stored in sheds for three to four months. Only a small quantity of the crop is stored under controlled conditions. As you may know for butternut squash control conditions are 7–10°C; 70 % R.H.
Wet soil will predispose squash to infection. Healthy squash at harvest time, dry soil, early harvested fruit with complete expansion, are pre-harvest factors that must be considered in areas with a high percentage humidity.
When losses at wholesale level are considered, susceptibility to fungal decay is clearly the main problem.
At MCBA in several years, as you see for 1988 in Table 1, we identified different Fusarium species as F. culmorum, F. solani, F. equiseti, F. moniliforme and F. graminearum. Species of Fusarium and Rhizopus stolonifer, were the most commonly isolated pathogens.
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.368.1
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1994.368.1