VIEW ARTICLE

Techniques

A Vacuum-Operated Settling Tower for Inoculation of Powdery Mildew Fungi. Francisco J. B. Reifschneider, Research plant pathologist, Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Hortaliças (CNPH)/EMBRAPA, C. P. 070218, 70.359, Brasília, D. F.; Leonardo S. Boiteux, graduate student, Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade de Brasília, 70910, Brasília, D. F. Phytopathology 78:1463-1465. Accepted for publication 4 May 1988. Copyright 1988 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-78-1463.

A vacuum-operated settling tower was developed for the inoculation of powdery mildew fungi. Sphaerotheca fuliginea race 1, which causes powdery mildew of cucurbits, was used as the test organism. Uniform conidial deposition within the tower was obtained in 120 sec; 89% of the conidia was deposited as a single conidium per site. The ease, rapidity, uniformity, and reliability of this technique indicate that it is of special use when inoculating large numbers of plants or excised plant parts that require quantitative evaluations.