Association of Climatic Stress with Blight on Chinese Chestnut in the Eastern United States. Christopher Jones, Graduate Student, Department of Plant Pathology and Physiology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061. Gary J. Griffin, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Physiology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061; and John Rush Elkins, Professor, Department of Chemistry, Concord College, Athens, WV 24701. Plant Dis. 64:1001-1004. Copyright 1980 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-64-1001.

In commercial and home plantings of Chinese chestnut in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York, 23% of the trees had main stem cankers incited by the chestnut blight fungus, Endothia parasitica. The average main stem canker size was 28 × 55 cm. Fifteen percent of the trees had infection over 50% or more of the limb circumferences. Only two blighted trees were killed. In general, main stem canker incidence (13–93%) was higher in plantings of the Appalachian Mountain region than in plantings of the Piedmont region (2–13% incidence). Trees that were damaged most by E. parasitica cankers were located in high-wind and cold-winter areas of the Appalachian Mountains.