Disease Note.

Fusarial Wilt of Banana in South Florida. R. C. Ploetz, University of Florida, IFAS, TREC, Homestead 33031. E. S. Shepard, University of Florida, IFAS, TREC, Homestead 33031. Plant Dis. 72:994. Accepted for publication 23 August 1988. Copyright 1988 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-72-0994F.

Specialty-type (non-Cavendish) bananas (Musa spp.) comprise most of the 150 ha of bananas grown commercially in Florida (Dade County). The majority of these plantings are of two cultivars, Silk (AAB genotype, known locally as Apple or Manzano) and Bluggoe (ABB, known locally as Burro). Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. f. sp. cubense (E. F. Smith) Snyd. & Hans. was recovered from wilted Silk and nonwilted but declining Bluggoe; cortical tissue of Bluggoe roots showed evidence of damage caused by the spiral nematode (Helicotylenchus multicinctus (Cobb) Golden). Isolates of F. o. f. sp. cubense were single-spored and used in pathogenicity and vegetative compatibility tests. Pathogenicity tests utilized uniformly sized tissueculture explants of Silk and Bluggoe (about 10 cm tall). Isolates of F. o. f. sp. cubense wilted, and ultimately killed, only cultivars from which they were originally recovered. Isolates were recovered from symptomatic tissue. All Silk isolates were in vegetative compatibility group (VCG) 01210 (1) and were incompatible with Bluggoe isolates and other F. o. f. sp. cubense isolates from the Eastern and Western hemispheres. B1uggoe isolates were compatible with tester isolates from VCG 0124 (I). This VCG contains race 2 isolates from Honduras, Jamaica, and Australia. To our knowledge, this is the first report of this important disease in the continental United States. Reference: (1) R. C. Ploetz and J. C. Correll. Plant Dis. 72:325, 1988.