The 2014-2015 horticultural season is beginning about three weeks later than expected as farmers are afraid and uncertain about the New Delhi virus, which affected production last year, when it was detected in the province of Almeria and caused damage mainly to the zucchini production. Currently, the news in Almeria is that this virus has also reached the Guadalquivir Valley, as was noted by elhocino-adra.blogspot.com, a well-known blog about agriculture created by entomology expert Antonio M. Aguilera.
The virus (ToLCNDV) had already been detected in a few plants in September last year in this area. However, Aguilera recently found new occurrences of the virus, this time in black melon plants, in a small greenhouse of Cordoba. "The foliar symptoms could be attributed to a thousand and one reasons but there is no doubt it is the New Delhi virus as the fruit also has longitudinal cracking," he stated in his blog. "It seems this time it is a more serious infection, with many affected plants, which may impede continuing the crops until the end," he says.
These cases in these agricultural areas with little tradition in the cultivation of cucurbits, and the relatively little presence of this virus in Almeria during spring and summer, indicated that the "preventive measures taken against the whitefly in Almeria have been effective, that this virus is still largely unknown and that, unfortunately, it hasn't been eradicated and it is still latent in the fields. "
Source: elalmeria.es