African Plant Protection (2002) 8, 57-63
L. Meyer and K. Van Dyk (2002)
Susceptibility of pasture crops to Rhizoctonia solani and other fungi associated with crater disease of wheat on the Springbok Flats, South Africa
African Plant Protection 8 (1-2), 57-63
Abstract: The pasture crops Anthephora pubescens, Avena sativa, Cenchrus ciliaris, Chloris gayana, Digitaria eriantha, Festuca elatior, Lolium multiflorum, Panicum maximum, Pennisetum glaucum, Sorghum sp. and X Triticosecale were compared in the greenhouse with wheat (Triticum aestivum) in crater disease (CD) soil and CD-free soil from three wheat fields on the Springbok Flats, South Africa. All the pasture crop species grown in CD soil were infected by the CD pathogen, Rhizoctonia solani AG-6, and developed root nodules typical of CD, but only A. sativa, C. gayana, P. maximum, Sorghum sp., X Triticosecale and wheat showed significantly retarded shoot growth. Virulence of R. solani AG-6 to all the pasture crops was verified in artificial infestation studies with fungi isolated from pasture and wheat roots on the Springbok Flats. Most of the pasture crops were also susceptible to Sclerotium rolfsii, Pythium aristosporum and Pythium arrhenomanes, whereas Fusarium nygamai, the dominant coloniser of pasture roots on the Springbok Flats, impeded growth of five of the crops in artificially infested soil.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution
