In 2006 and 2007, commercially grown spinach (Spinacia oleracea) in California's coastal Salinas Valley (Monterey County) was affected by an unreported root rot disease. Disease was limited to patches along the edges of fields. Affected plants were stunted with chlorotic older leaves. As disease progressed, most of the older foliage first wilted and then turned tan and dry; youngest leaves remained green but were stunted and leathery in texture. Plants most severely affected died. Symptoms on roots were mostly restricted to the distal portion of the root system, where feeder roots and the main taproot turned black. Isolations from root lesions consistently resulted in the recovery of a Phytophthora sp. The isolates were heterothallic, and on the basis of morphological and cytochrome oxidase 2 gene sequence data (GenBank Accession No. GQ984233), the pathogen was identified as Phytophthora cryptogea. To evaluate pathogenicity, individual inocula of four isolates were prepared by incubating colonized 6-mm-diameter V8 agar plugs in filtered soil extract for 2 days at 20°C to induce sporangia production. These cultures were then chilled at 4°C for 20 min and returned to room temperature for 1 h to induce zoospore release (4). Four-week-old spinach plants (cv. Bolero) were uprooted, soaked in suspensions of 1.0 × 105 zoospores/ml for 10 min, and repotted. After treatment, pots were placed in shallow trays of water for 24 h to saturate the root zone, then were removed from trays and incubated in a greenhouse. After 9 days, inoculated plants showed foliar wilting and chlorosis similar to that observed in the field; after 13 days, roots were examined and found to show the black necrosis as seen in the field. P. cryptogea was isolated from all inoculated plants. Control spinach plants, treated with soil extract only, did not develop disease. This experiment was completed two times and the results were similar. To our knowledge, this is the first report of Phytophthora root rot of spinach caused by P. cryptogea in California. This finding is significant because spinach in California is subject to root rots caused by three other pathogens (Fusarium oxysporum, Pythium spp., and Rhizoctonia solani) (1); symptoms from these root rots are very similar to those caused by P. cryptogea, thereby complicating diagnosis. This pathogen has been documented on spinach in Germany and Sweden (2,3).
References: (1) S. T. Koike et al. Vegetable Diseases: A Color Handbook. Manson Publishing LtD. London, 2007. (2) H. Krober and E.-O. Beckmann. Phytopathol. Z. 78:160, 1973. (3) M. Larsson and J. Olofsson. Plant Pathol. 43:251, 1994. (4) S. A. Tjosvold et al. Plant Dis. 93:371, 2009.
