Evaluations of Celery Germ Plasm for Resistance to Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. apii Race 2 in Michigan. Wade H. Elmer, Former Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823. Melvyn L. Lacy, Professor, Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, and Shigemi Honma, Professor, Department of Horticulture, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823. Plant Dis. 70:416-419. Accepted for publication 13 November 1985. Copyright 1986 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-70-416.

Thirty cultivars of celery and celeriac and 71 experimental lines of celery were evaluated for resistance to Fusarium yellows of celery in the greenhouse and under field conditions in naturally infested soil. Disease was assessed by visual disease ratings based on the amount of vascular discoloration in the crown area and by determining dry weights in the greenhouse or fresh trimmed weights of marketable cultivars in the field at harvest. Most commercial celery cultivars were rated highly or moderately susceptible. Deacon and Tall Utah 52-70 HK were the most resistant commercially available lines tested and were rated moderately resistant. Summer Pascal and Golden Spartan also showed some resistance. Several experimental lines showed resistance, but many lacked desirable horticultural characteristics. Breeding lines 83-604 and 68-37 were rated moderately to highly resistant to Fusarium yellows race 2, were horticulturally acceptable, and will be released as the cultivars Companion and Pilgrim, respectively, in 1986.