Basal Cankers and Coppice Failure of Eucalyptus grandis in Florida. E. L. Barnard, Forest Pathologist, Divisions of Forestry and Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1269, Gainesville 32602. T. Geary, J. T. English, and S. P. Gilly. Forestry Support Program, USDA Forest Service, P.O. Box 2417, Washington, DC 20013; Graduate Assistant, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, Gainesville 32611; and Biologist, Divisions of Forestry and Plant Industry, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1269, Gainesville 32602. Plant Dis. 71:358-361. Accepted for publication 17 October 1986. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1987. DOI: 10.1094/PD-71-0358.

The relationship of basal cankers to coppice failure in a Eucalyptus grandis plantation in southern Florida was investigated. Canker incidence increased from about 15 to 57% over 4 yr. Cryphonectria cubensis and Botryosphaeria dothidea were isolated frequently from bark samples removed from cankered trees and stumps. After a February harvest at age 13, 44% of residual stumps failed to generate coppice shoots, or they initiated new shoots that soon died. Incidence of coppice failure was not significantly correlated to the presence or severity of basal cankers, but stumps of cankered trees had significantly fewer coppice-bursting centers. Dead coppice shoots on 99 of 100 randomly selected stumps supported pycnidia and/or perithecia of C. cubensis at their bases 18 mo after harvest. Dead coppice shoots on 50 of the same 100 stumps supported pycnidial stromata characteristic of those described for C. gyrosa, a species not previously reported in Florida.