VIEW ARTICLE

Ecology and Epidemiology

Escape of Peronospora tabacina Spores from a Field of Diseased Tobacco Plants. Donald E. Aylor, Department of Ecology and Climatology, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box 1106, New Haven 06504; Gordon S. Taylor, Department of Plant Pathology, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, P.O. Box 1106, New Haven 06504. Phytopathology 73:525-529. Accepted for publication 28 September 1982. Copyright 1983 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-73-525.

Blue mold disease of tobacco is spread from field to field by wind-blown spores of the fungal pathogen, Peronospora tabacina. Estimation of the number of spores likely to reach a distant field requires knowledge of the rate at which spores escape from an infected crop. Vertical profiles of spore concentration and wind speed above a small field of tobacco plants severely diseased with blue mold were measured on several days during the hours of peak spore release. The rate of spore escape derived from these measurements ranged from one to seven spores per square meter per second. By means of a mathematical model, these results were used to estimate spore escape from more extensive plantings.