Abstract:
Climate change is occurring in Romania and interacts with agroecological factors to increase biotic stress in sunflowers.
Furthermore, the uneven distribution of precipitation has increased the chances of infection with necrotrophic pathogens.
Therefore, the main objective of this paper was to study the dynamics of pathogens in the sunflower culture influenced
by both the use of fertilizers and the genetic characteristics of the hybrids, correlated with the economic potential offered
by pedo-climatic condition found in the Transylvania Plains area. The main objective of this paper was to monitor the
health of some sunflower hybrids in different climatic conditions given by the experimental years (2019, 2020, 2021), but
also differentiated fertilization (DAP, unfertilized). Thus, under the conditions of the experimental years, the pathogens
identified were: Plasmopara halstedii, Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, Alternaria zinniae, Puccinia helianthi, Septoria
helianthi, Botrytis cinerea, Plenodomus lindquistii, Diaporthe helianthi, Verticillium spp., Pseudomonas tagetis. Of these,
only the following pathogens presented quantifiable degrees of attack each year: Diaporthe helianthi, Plenodomus
lindquistii, and Alternaria zinniae. During the experiment, six hybrids were tested each year. The choice of Klarika and
Neoma hybrids to be presented was due to the observed genetic tolerance, which differed considerably from the other
variants of the year.
