Peacock spot, cercospora, anthracnose, dalmatian disease, verticillium wilt, olive knot, Xylella, and the pests: olive fly, olive moth, psyllid, Pollinia, jasmine moth, black scale. A tool that compares field symptoms against the profile of each cause, with photographs and the one feature that separates them.
The bacterium that destroyed the olive groves of the Salento: how the biofilm kills the tree by thirst, why the nymph of the vector is the only accessible target, why there is no cure, and the two resistant olive cultivars that are now the one hopeful development.
Theba pisana is native to the Mediterranean, not invasive, so there is no eradication programme to wait for. Identification, life cycle, the damage in tree crops, the single approved target in the Greek register, and why the nematode Phasmarhabditis killed the snail only at five times the label rate.
Bactrocera oleae does not take kilos, it takes the grade: between 10% and 15% infestation the acidity crosses 0.8 and the oil is downgraded from extra virgin. Biology, the Candidatus Erwinia dacicola symbiont, the degree-day model, fruit sampling and the 5% and 2% thresholds, bait sprays, kaolin, mass trapping, and the resistance now measured in Greek populations.
An exotic quarantine insect spreading through Greece since 2016. Spraying does not control it and makes matters worse. How it arrived, how it is recognised, the generations, the hosts beyond citrus, the legal obligations that come with quarantine status, and the biological control developments of the past two years that have not yet reached the grower.
