Botrytis cinerea is Inactivated by Germicidal UV Light

What is Botrytis cinerea?

If you’re cultivating crops of any kind, you’re all too familiar with horticulture’s arch-enemy, Botrytis cinerea, better known as gray mold. While not a human pathogen except in rare casesopen_in_new, this fungus affects over 200 plant speciesopen_in_new, particularly grapes and cannabis. Highly destructive, Botrytis cinerea can affect the healthy growth of crops in the field or in greenhousesopen_in_new. Worldwide agricultural losses are estimated of up to $100 billion by this harmful fungus which manifests itself at first as a white growth but over time darkens to smokey gray, softening the plant as cells are destroyed. It has also been described as having a powdery mildew-like appearance on the organic victims it attacks.

Preventing the spread of Botrytis cinerea

Plants by nature constantly transpire water vaporopen_in_new, which builds up in the air, causing relative humidity to quickly rise in the greenhouse. While a moist environment is necessary for plants to thrive, too much humidity creates a habitat well-suited to the growth of unwanted pathogens like Botrytis cinerea. To keep the air from becoming too saturated, regulated humidity control becomes essential in places like cannabis cultivation rooms. While the entire cannabis plant is at risk for infection, cannabis buds are particularly susceptible to the development of B. cinerea because they are dense and a perfect trap for water vapor. This mold also attacks cannabis in the post-harvest phase, including drying, curing, and packaging.

Spores develop outsideopen_in_new and are typically brought into growing rooms via the clothing of those who work there. It is crucial that workers disinfect themselves prior to entering the sterile environment where plants are grown and harvested, almost as if they are entering a hospital.

Existing treatment methods to counteract the growth of this fungus are air filtration, positive pressurization, and fungicides. Even parasitic options have been considered.  While these methods can yield some positive results in the war against gray mold, the most effective and the cleanest way of inactivating Botrytis cinerea is germicidal ultraviolet irradiationopen_in_new, which you can read more about below.

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Botrytis cinerea: Classification & UV-C Dose for Inactivation

Organism:	Alternate Name:	Type:	Disease:	UV Dose*:
Botrytis cinerea	B. cinerea	Mold	gray mold, bud rot	110 mJ/cm2

* Nominal Ultraviolet dosage necessary to inactivate better than 99% of microorganisms. See sources below.

Botrytis cinerea Symptoms

The most common symptoms associated with Botrytis cinerea are as follows:

• Dark to light brown rot
• Presence of white to gray mold
• Wounded tissue
• Fading flowers
• Broken stems or injured leaves

Sources on Botrytis cinerea

The above information can be found on the following pages.

• Cultivation Facilities: UV-C’s Roleopen_in_new
• Penn State Extension: Botrytis or Gray Moldopen_in_new
• DryGair: Botrytis in Cannabisopen_in_new
• ScienceDirect: Botrytis cinereaopen_in_new
• Nat’l Library of Medicine: The Destructive Fungal Pathogen Botrytis cinereaopen_in_new

Dosage Source

Cultivation Facilities: UV-C’s Role in Protecting Crops and System Efficiency. Wladyslaw Kowalski, Daniel Jones. Engineered Systems Magazine, June 6, 2018

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