Disease Note. Fusarium Crown and Root Rot of Tomato in Pennsylvania. M. D. Ricker, Campbell Institute for Research & Technology, P-152 Road 12, Napoleon, OH 43545. Plant Dis. 71:469. Accepted for publication 30 January 1987. Copyright 1987 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-71-0469C. In 1985, Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. f. sp. radicis-lycopersici
Jarvis & Shoemaker (FORL) (2) was isolated from Dombito tomato
plants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) growing in a greenhouse in
Washingtonville, Pennsylvania. Ten percent ofthe fruit-bearing plants
wilted suddenly during sunny days and eventually died. Symptoms
included extensive root decay, stem girdling, and vascular discoloration
that extended no more than 13 cm above the soil line. The pathogenicity of the fungus was confirmed through inoculations of 20 plants each of
four cultivars. Plants were examined 2 mo after root-dip inoculations
with 1.5 X 106 macrospores and micros pores per milliliter. Percentages
of plants with vascular discoloration were 100, 100, 90, and 0,
respectively, for the cultivars KC 135 (susceptible to races 1 and 2 of F.
O. f. sp. lycopersici [FOL]), Easy Harvest (resistant to race I of FOL),
Walter (resistant to races I and 2 of FOL), and Larma (resistant to
FORL and races I and 2 of FOL). This appears to be the first report of
Fusarium crown and root rot of tomato in Pennsylvania. The disease
has previously been reported from greenhouses in Ohio, New
Hampshire, and Texas and from fields in Florida and California (1).
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