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Ecology and Epidemiology

Spatial Pattern of Southern Stem Rot Caused by Sclerotium rolfsii in Six North Carolina Peanut Fields. B. B. Shew, Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27695; M. K. Beute(2), and C. L. Campbell(3). (2)(3)Department of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27695. Phytopathology 74:730-735. Accepted for publication 10 February 1984. Copyright 1984 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-74-730.

Frequency distributions of southern stem rot lesions in five of six data sets from North Carolina peanut fields sampled in 1980- 1982 were fitted (P = 0.13 to 0.75) by a negative binomial distribution, which indicated that disease occurred in a clustered pattern. Disease incidence ranged from 5.4 to 32.3% in the six fields sampled. Estimates of the parameter k of the negative binomial distribution ranged from 0.87 to 6.49 and generally increased with plot size and with the population mean. Incidence of southern stem rot lesions in three fields was positively correlated with soil bulk density (r = 0.47**). Spatial correlations calculated from data from three fields indicated different patterns of disease in each field.