The time of inoculation between the antagonist yeasts and the
pathogen had a significant effect on control efficiency. Throughout
the incubation period, the papaya fruit treated with the yeasts
12 and 24 h before C. gloeosporioides had significantly smaller
(P
≤
0.05) infection lesion sizes than those inoculated with the
yeasts 12 and 24 h later (Fig. 1). Indeed, the fruit treated with W.
anomalus (strain 422) 24 h before C. gloeosporioides inoculation had
a necrotic lesion size 31.35% smaller than control samples after 6 d
incubation, while those treated with the yeasts 24 h after the phytopathogen
inoculation were only 4% smaller. Similar results were
found for strain 443, in which the yeast application 24 h before the
phytopathogen reduced in 41.17% the lesion size after 6 d incubation.
However, when M. guilliermondii was applied 24 h after the
phytopathogen, the lesion size reduction was less than 10% compared
to control fruit (Fig. 1).