Phytophthora rot of cucumber is commonly seen in Nara Prefecture in Japan and the damage is especially severe when the plants are attacked at the seedling stage, which results in the damping-off symptom. This study was conducted to survey the species of
Phytophthora attacking cucumbers in Nara Prefecture, to examine their pathogenicity to cucumber and other crops, and to test some fungicides for their controlling effect against the disease.
1) The incidence of
Phytophthora rot of cucumber varies from year to year depending upon the amount and duration of the rainfall. The seasonal change of the incidence also depends on the condition of cucumber cultivation. The disease becomes prevalent once a year in vinylhouse culture (from March through April), while two peaks of prevalence are seen in open-field culture (May to July and late in August through September), and in gravel culture and water solution culture (April to June and September to October).
2) Sixteen isolates of
Phytophthora were obtained from diseased cucumber plants including a squash stock, which exhibited the damping-off symptom. Of these isolates, thirteen were identified as
Phytophthora melonis KATSURA, and two were identified as
P. capsici LEONIAN, on the basis of the morphological characteristics of their zoosporangia and their pathogenicity to the fruit of cucumber and eggplant. The one other isolate was found to be a mixture of these two species of
Phytophthora.
3) The isolates were tested for their pathogenicity to seedlings of cucumber and squash.
Phytophthora melonis showed intense pathogenicity to cucumber and induced the damping-off symptom, but did not invade squash. On the other hand,
P. capsici showed intense pathogenicity to squash and induced damping-off, but was weakly pathogenic to cucumber, making some lesions on the leaves and stems without the damping-off symptom.
4) The fungicides were tested for their controlling effect against
Phytophthora rot of cucumber in a field artificially infested with
P. melonis. Of these, Pansoil E (40 % WP) at concentrations of 133 and 200 ppm was highly effective for control of the disease under the condition of severe outbreak.
5) Judging from these results, the species of
Phytophthora responsible for the damping-off symptom of cucumber are considered mostly to be
P. melonis.
Phytophthora capsici may possibly attack cucumber only under continuous unfavorable conditions and also can attack the squash stock used for the grafting. It can be said that the damage by the former species is acute while that by the latter is chronic in most cases.
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