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Seedborne Cladosporium variabile and Stemphylium botryosum in Spinach

Assays of 77 spinach (Spinacia oleracea) seed lots produced in the United States, Denmark, the Netherlands, or New Zealand in 2000 to 2003 showed that Stemphylium botryosum, causal agent of Stemphylium leaf spot, was present in every lot, at a mean incidence of 29.1% per lot. Either Cladosporium variabile, causal agent of Cladosporium leaf spot, or the morphologically similar species C. macrocarpum, was present in 37 of the 77 lots, at a mean incidence of 1.8% per lot. Some seed isolates of S. botryosum and C. variabile proved pathogenic on spinach. Nonpathogenic isolates resembling C. variabile were identified as C. macrocarpum by the absence of torulose aerial hyphae. Pathogenic isolates of S. botryosum were also detected in each of 12 seed lots stored for up to 11 years at 4.4°C and 60% relative humidity. C. variabile or C. macrocarpum was detected in only 2 of the 11 lots, which had been stored for 3 and 8 years. Component seed assays demonstrated that S. botryosum and C. variabile (or C. macrocarpum) were internal and external in spinach seed. S. botryosum was detected in 5 to 76% of the embryos of five seed lots, but the two Cladosporium species were detected in only 0 to 1% of the embryos of these lots. This suggests greater potential difficulty at eradicating S. botryosum than C. variabile from infected spinach seed using seed treatments.