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Etiology

Cercospora Stem Blotch Disease of Rabbiteye Blueberry. R. D. Milholland, Professor of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27607; Phytopathology 67:816-819. Accepted for publication 31 January 1977. Copyright © 1977 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-67-816.

A Cercospora sp. was isolated and identified as the causal organism of stem blotch of rabbiteye blueberry. Symptoms of the disease appear as red blotches on previous season’s growth. Conidia and conidiophores are produced on a fasciculate stroma that emerges from stomates. Hyphal growth is intercellular, causing hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the cortical parenchyma. Periderm was produced by the phloem parenchyma in response to the pathogen. Typical lesions exhibit collapse and necrosis of cells in the cortex, pericycle, and phloem within 1 yr after infection.