Published in Scientific Papers. Series B, Horticulture, Volume LXI
Written by Roxana CICEOI, Ionela DOBRIN, Elena Ştefania MARDARE, Elena Diana DICIANU, Florin STĂNICĂ
The jujube crop (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) is one of the oldest crops in China and in the world. Written indications about its technology (grafting, pruning, pest control etc) are older than 1500 years, when the jujube was one of the top five most important fruits in China, together with peach, apricot, plum and chestnut. Their nutraceutical qualities were highly appreciated, but also the beauty of the tree and the flower perfume, which legends says, made people fall in love. Nowadays, the crop is expanding, both in China and on the other continents, due to the high content of bioactive compounds that can help in lowering the blood pressure, in liver diseases, anaemia and also inhibit the growth of tumor cells etc. In Romania, the species grows sub spontaneous since the antique times and until the present moment no important pests had been reported. Still, giving the climatic changes in the last years, many pests became invasive and enlarge their host plant spectrum. On the USAMV Bucharest experimental field, we monitor the pests incidence and we identify few species that might become a threat: Halyomorpha halys (Stal) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), Metcalfa pruinosa Say (Homoptera: Flatidae), Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera, Tephritidae) and Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae). The other potential polyphagous pests, like weevils, fruit borers and moths, made insignificant damages on the fruits, but they should still be under careful observation. Data about the pests’ biology, damage and control are given.
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