Field and Detached-fruit Screening Tests for Resistance to Belly Rot in Cucumber

Abstract

Field and detached-fruit screening tests were developed for evaluating cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) plant introduction accessions, breeding lines, and cultivars (hereafter collectively referred to as cultigens) for resistance to fruit rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn. The factors that were examined for developing a detached-fruit test were five inoculum levels of R. solani AG-4 and two cover treatments. The major influence on disease reaction was inoculum level. The best method used 50-mm-diameter fruit placed on sterile soil inoculated with 6400 oat grains/m2 colonized with R. solani and watered initially, then misted every 3 days for 1 minute, left uncovered, and rated after 10 days for the percentage of the fruit surface covered with lesions. Field and detached-fruit tests were conducted using two different inoculum levels of R. solani (3200 and 4800 oat grains/m2). The four most resistant cultigens, based on the results of field and detached-fruit tests, were PI 163216, PI 197088, PI 357852, and PI 280096. One field and detached-fruit test pair was not significantly correlated (detached-fruit screening test one vs. field screening test one), but the other (detached-fruit test two vs. field screening test two) was correlated (r = 0.50). The detached-fruit test could be used for general classification of resistance or susceptibility. Resistant cultigens could be identified with either method, but the field test had slightly lower coefficients of variation.