VIEW ARTICLE

A Procedure for Infesting Field Soils with Pseudomonas solanacearum. S. M. McCarter, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, and Plant Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens 30602; Phytopathology 63:799-800. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-63-799.

Field soils became uniformly infested with Pseudomonas solanacearum when beds of tomato of transplant size were inoculated by clipping with a contaminated rotary mower and the resulting diseased plants incorporated into the soil. Mortality among H-1350 tomato plants transplanted immediately after soil incorporation of the diseased plant material was 93 and 98% at two locations in Georgia. Mortality among plants transplanted the year following infestation ranged from 0% in plants of a resistant breeding line to 99% in a susceptible cultivar. The clipping procedure appears to be a useful tool for increasing the level and uniformity of infestation by P. solanacearum in fields to be used for experimental purposes.