Can we recognize disease stress in onions?

Recognize and, if possible, measure disease stress. This is, through Karin Oonk (Agrifirm), the major challenge for the coming season for the research working group 'Resilient onions'. As working group chair, Oonk is closely involved in the development of the research plan, with the key question being: 'How can we determine the resilience of an onion crop?'

Differences in resilience?
The 'Resilient onions' working group met for the first time in February of this year. During this meeting, the plan was established to investigate how the resilience of an onion crop can be determined in practice this coming season. Oonk: "Can we recognize 'disease stress' and if possible measure it? Can we see differences between different cultivation systems, in other words is one cultivation system intrinsically better for the onion's resilience than the other?"

Combination of literature research and field research
The research in the coming season will be a combination of literature research into measuring methods of resilience and various observations in trials of various cultivation systems. The aim for the future is to recognize a period of stress in a crop at an early stage, so that preventive adjustments can be made as quickly as possible.

Oonk: "It would be even better if we could answer the question of which cultivation system makes the onion crop itself most resilient and to what extent we can take this into account in practice. In short, on to a robust cultivation system for onions."