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The American cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) is a perspective and marketable crop both in Latvia and foreign markets, but berries are affected by rot in storage. The aim of the study was to detect the incidence level of cranberry fruit rot at the beginning of storage period in different places in Latvia. In 2007 - 2011, two hundred sound berries (out of 1000) were randomly collected by hand along a diagonal from five different cranberry plantations from locations all over Latvia. Berries were kept in plastic bags for a month and refrigerated at +7 °C. At the end of November, berries were sorted and rotten berries were separated from the sound ones. Over the period of 2007 - 2011, the incidence of storage rot reached 12 - 15% at the end of November, with an upwards trend observed every year, but the hot and rainy summer of 2010 significantly reduced the quality of fruit in storage, peaking on the average 33% of decayed berries. The incidence of fruit rot varied among the inspected cranberry plantations, but a tendency was observed that older plantations produced more rotting fruit and incidence of the disease was 12 - 50% after a month’s storage in the oldest plantation. The application of fungicides during the vegetation season did not affect development of post-harvest rot. Storage rot was a problem in the cranberry samples from all inspected plantations in Latvia, and in future the incidence of fruit rot is expected to increase.

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