Abstract
Within the FP 7 Project CO-FREE, several open-field trials were carried out on apple in Italy and France from 2013 to 2015. The trials aimed at evaluating the efficacy against the major fungal diseases of apple of novel plant protection products based on plant extracts, algae, and microorganisms, and their crop safety. None of the new products tested showed levels of disease control, which can be considered comparable to those of the commonly used reference fungicides based on copper, lime sulphur, hydrogen carbonates, and acid clays. This emphasizes the importance of supporting the former products in the ongoing approval and registration procedures on both a European and national level, in order to have them available for crop protection without any additional restrictions. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that not all the novel products that have been tested by other project partners in laboratory and greenhouse trials, have been evaluated also in the open field. Therefore, hopefully, one or more innovative organic plant protection products will be developed in the future.