Occurrence of Sclerotinia Rot on Composite Vegetable Crops and the Causal Sclerotinia spp

ABSTRACT

Composite vegetable crops grown in greenhouses and open fields in Korea were surveyed from 1995 to 1999. Occurrence of Sclerotinia rot was observed in 123 of 277 lettuce fields, in 11 of 18 head lettuce fields, in 12 of 14 endive fields, and in 4 of 38 garland chrysanthemum fields surveyed during the growing seasons. The disease most severely occurred up to 80% on lettuce. Incidence of the disease was as high as 20% at its maximum on endive and garland chrysanthemum but relatively low on head lettuce. Symptoms of the disease developed on leaves of all the composites, crowns of lettuce and head lettuce, and stems of garland chrysanthemum. Out of 240 isolates of Sclerotinia species obtained from the diseased composites, 169 isolates were identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, and the others as S. minor based on their morphological and cultural characteristics. S. sclerotiorum was isolated from all the composites, and S. minor only from lettuce and endive. Eight isolates of S. sclerotiorum and four isolates of S. minor were tested for their pathogenicity to the composites by artificial inoculation. All the isolates of the two Sclerotinia spp. induced rot symptoms on the plants of the composites by artificial inoculation, which were similar to those observed in the fields. The pathogenicity tests revealed that there is no significant difference in virulence of the isolates to the composites and in susceptibility of the composites to the isolates.