Disease Note

First Report of Pseudomonas cichorii Associated with Apical Rot on Belgian Endive in Southern California. W. Chun, J. V. Leary, J. W. Willis, and A. O. Paulus, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside 92521. Plant Dis. 68:537, 1984. Accepted for publication 19 March 1984. Copyright 1984 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-68-537f.

Belgian endive (Cichorium endivia L.) Stapp 1935, regenerated from root sections and cultured under subdued light, showed symptoms of apical rot in the Imperial Valley of California in 1983.  A fluorescent oxidase-positive arginine-dihyrdolase-negative pseudomonad was consistently recovered on King's medium B (KMB) agar from samples with discoloration of apical tissue and shoots.  The bacterium was identified as Pseudomonas cichorii (Swingle 1925) Stapp 1928 by colony morphology on KMB and by physiological tests.  Isolates from endive were pathogenic on greenhouse-grown lettuce, which is a host of P. cichorii in the Salinas Valley of California.  This is the first report of isolation of P. cichorii from endive with apical rot symptoms in southern California.

Reference: Grogan, R. G., et al.. Phytopathology. 67:957, 1977.  Jones, J. B., et al. Plant Dis. 67:431, 1983.