Reaction of Selected Chickpea Lines to Fusarium and Thielaviopsis Root Rots. M. A. Bhatti, Department of Plant Pathology, Washington State University, Pullman 99164. John M. Kraft, Supervisory Research Plant Pathologist, Vegetable and Forage Crops Production, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Route 2, Box 2953A, Prosser, WA 99350. Plant Dis. 76:54-56. Accepted for publication 23 July 1991. 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, 1992. DOI: 10.1094/PD-76-0054.

Forty selected chickpea (Cicer arietinum) cultivars or breeding lines were evaluated for resistance to root rot caused by Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi or Thielaviopsis basicola. Disease severity was higher in two different trials in the greenhouse at 25 ± 3 C than at 22 ± 3 C. Disease severity, rated on a 1–9 scale where 1 = a healthy plant and 9 = a dead plant, ranged from 4.1 to 9.0 at the low temperature and from 7.8 to 9.0 at the high temperature. Although none of the 40 lines was completely resistant to F. s. pisi at either temperature, 10 desi (small-seeded) lines were resistant (mean disease index = 3 or less) to root rot caused by T. basicola.