Susceptibility and Response of Juniper Species to Kabatina juniperi Infection in New Jersey. R. G. Perry, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological and Allied Health Sciences, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, NJ 07940. J. L. Peterson, Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, Cook College, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University, New Brunswick 08903. Plant Dis. 66:1189-1191. Accepted for publication 13 July 1982. Copyright 1982 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-66-1189.

Kabatina juniperi was confirmed by wound inoculation of various juniper species and cultivars under greenhouse and field conditions as an important tip blight incitant in New Jersey. Although the symptoms were similar to those reported for Phomopsis juniperovora, they developed under different environmental conditions, requiring low temperatures (16–21 C) and relative humidities above 95%. Sunken, ashen-gray cankers developed at the base of the blighted tip, where rounded to ellipsoidal, erumpent, black acervuli as long as 1 mm usually developed. Hyaline conidiophores with pointed tips were packed together on a stromatic surface; hyaline, unicellular, ellipsoid conidia of various sizes (2–3 × 4–8 µm) were produced at their tips. Twelve cultivars representing nine juniper species were artificially infected.

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