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Techniques

Reassessment of Soil Assays for Verticillium dahliae. E. J. Butterfield, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, Present address of senior author: Boyce Thompson Institute, 1086 North Broadway, Yonkers, NY 10701; J. E. DeVay, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616. Phytopathology 67:1073-1078. Accepted for publication 11 February 1977. Copyright © 1977 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-67-1073.

Modifications in the Anderson Sampler technique of soil plating increased the accuracy and sensitivity of soil assays for microsclerotia of Verticillium dahliae. This modified technique was compared with a wet-sieving technique for eight different soils and it yielded approximately 2.8 times more propagules per gram of soil. Possible reasons for the difference in efficiency between the two techniques are discussed.