Disease Note.

Occurrence of Fusarium Rot of Stored Garlic in Israel. M. Koch, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan, Israel. Z. Taanami, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan, Israel. Plant Dis. 79:426. Accepted for publication 8 March 1995. Copyright 1995 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-79-0426D.

Bulbs from a varietal screening of garlic (Allium sativum L) were harvested in May 1994 and stored at ambient temperature in net bags in a screenhouse. A spongy, yellow-brown rot of cloves began to develop 1 mo after harvest in bulbs of late-harvested cultivars, especially those that had secondary sprouting before harvest. Symptoms usually began from the bulb base and affected individual cloves within the bulb to varying degrees. Fusarium oxysporum (Schlechtend.:Fr.) was isolated from infected cloves. Cloves were inoculated with this strain by inserting a piece of mycelial mat from a 5-day-old culture grown on potato-dextrose agar into the base. Cloves were stored at high humidity overnight in a plastic bag and then were stored dry at room temperature for I mo. During this time characteristic rotting developed at the bulb base. Fusarium oxysporum was reisolated from inoculated cloves. Onion seedlings soaked 15 min in a spore suspension of the culture and grown in sterile sand in a greenhouse developed wilting symptoms typical of F. oxysporum f. sp. cepae. An unusually late rain is thought to have favored disease. Symptoms similar to those described have been reported from commercial growers, especially of late-harvested elephant garlic. This is the first report of Fusarium rot affecting garlic in Israel.