Disease Note

Ascochyta rabiei on Chickpeas in Idaho. M. L. Derie, R. L. Bowden, and K. D. Kephart, Department of Plant, Soil and Entomological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow 83843, and W. J. Kaiser, Regional Plant Introduction Station, USDA-ARS, Washington State University, Pullman 99164. Plant Disease 69:268, 1985. Accepted for publication 14 November 1984. Copyright 1985 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-69-268b.

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) blight caused by Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Lab. was found in 23 of 30 fields (588 of 811 ha) in Nez Perce and Clearwater counties, Idaho, 1984.  Symptoms were brown lesions on leaves, stems, and pods that usually contained concentric circles of pycnidia.  Diagnosis was confirmed by fungal morphology and pathogenicity tests.  Disease severity ranged from a trace to over 50% and averaged 4.6% of total leaf area.  One 20-ha field was plowed down because of severe infection.  A. rabiei, which is disseminated primarily by infected seed, was first reported in the United States in 1983 at Pullman, Washington.  The wdespread occurrence of A. rabiei in chickpeas from several Idaho seed sources suggests that the fungus has been present but undetected in Idaho for several years.

References: Kaiser, W. J., and Muehlbauer, F. J. Phytopathology 74:1139, 1984.