Distribution of Rhabdocline and Swiss Needle Casts on Douglas-Fir Christmas Trees in New Hampshire. T. C. Harrington, Assistant Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, University of New Hampshire, Durham 03824. Plant Dis. 70:1069-1070. Accepted for publication 31 March 1986. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-1069.

Twenty-nine sites with Douglas-fir Christmas tree plantations were examined in 1984 for Rhabdocline and Swiss needle cast diseases. Rhabdocline needle cast was found at 17 sites, Swiss needle cast at 9, and neither needle cast at 11. Rhabdocline pseudotsugae subsp. pseudotsugae, reported for the first time in New England, was more prevalent than R. weirii subsp. oblonga. Neither Phaeocryptopus gaeumannii (cause of Swiss needle cast) nor R. weirii were detected in southeastern New Hampshire, where winter and spring conditions are usually milder than in the interior of the state.