VIEW ARTICLE

Disease Control and Pest Management

Use of Two- and Three-Way Mixtures to Prevent Buildup of Resistance to Phenylamide Fungicides in Phytophthora and Plasmopara. Yair Samoucha, Visiting research fellow and Assistant professor, Agrobiological Research Station, Sandoz Ltd., CH-4108 Witterswil, Switzerland; Ulrich Gisi, Head of Phytopathology group, Agrobiological Research Station, Sandoz Ltd., CH-4108 Witterswil, Switzerland. Phytopathology 77:1405-1409. Accepted for publication 31 March 1987. Copyright 1987 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-77-1405.

Oxadixyl, mancozeb, and cymoxanil were tested, singly and as two- or three-way mixtures, for their potential to control phenylamide-sensitive and -resistant strains of Phytophthora infestans on tomato or potato and Plasmopara viticola on grape under growth chamber and plastic house conditions. Fungicide mixtures provided better disease control of phenylamide-resistant strains than either one of the components alone. Two- and three-way mixtures were compared in terms of selection pressure against mixed populations of sporangium suspensions of both pathogens over a period of eight generations of sporangia. Applications were made three to seven times at 7–14-day intervals. For inoculation, a sporangium suspension with an initial proportion of resistant strains of 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 20, or 50% was used. When initial amounts of resistance in the mixed population were 1, 0.1, and 0.01%, the two-way mixture oxadixyl/mancozeb did not select for more than about 15% resistance after two, three, and four applications, respectively, each application made on a new sporangium generation. If initial percentage of resistance was 10% or higher, 100% resistant strains were present after four to five sporangium generations. In contrast, mixed populations containing as high as 50% resistance remained fairly stable, when treated with the three-way mixture oxadixyl/mancozeb/cymoxanil; the proportion of the resistant subpopulation even decreased in tendency during a period of eight sporangium generations, each treated with a new fungicide application.