Disease Note

Mycocentrospora acerina Associated with Storage Rot of Carrot in Atlantic Canada. G. N. Cheeseman and M. G. Anderson, Agriculture Canada Research Station, Kentville, NS B4N 1J5, and B. G. Penney, Agriculture Canada Research Station, St. John's, NFLD A1E 3Y3. Plant Disease 69:177, 1985. Accepted for publication 20 September 1984. Copyright 1985 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-69-177b.

Licorice rot (firm black lesions of the crown, side, and tip) was found on carrots (Daucus carota L. var. sativa) after 5–8 mo of storage at 0–1 C; no symptoms had been observed at harvest.  The pathogen was identified as Mycocentrospora acerina (Hartig) Deighton on the basis of colony characteristics and conidial morphology in agar culture.  The incidence of infected carrots from two Newfoundland fields in 1982 and from one field in 1983 was 0.76, 33.3, and 4.1%, respectively; disease incidence was determined from sample sizes of at least 8,700 carrots.  Although the disease has been reported previously in Canada, this is the first report from the extreme eastern portion.

References: Davies, W. P., and Lewis, B. G. Ann. Appl. Biol. 95:11, 1980.  Sutton, B. C., and Gibson, I. A. S. Commonw. Mycol. Inst. 537, 1977.