Incidence of fusarium species on red clover seed

Abstract

Phytopathological investigation of seed of three commercial red clover cultivars - K9, K17 and NS Kolubara, and two pre-treatments of seeds rinsing and surface disinfection of seeds (T1) and surface disinfection of seeds (T2) have determined that frequency of species within the genus Fusarium varied from 0 to 13%. By use of T1 pre-treatment the presence of Fusarium species on the seed was observed in neither of examined cultivars. In this pre-treatment the presence of 1% Penicillium spp. was observed on seed of cultivar K17 only, while the seeds K9 and NS Kolubara were non-infected. By use of T2 pre-treatment, the frequency of Fusarium species varied from 1 to 13%, depending on cultivar. From the seeds of all three examined cultivars, Fusarium verticillioides (2-13%) and F. proliferatum (2-6%) were isolated and from the seed of cultivar K9, F. oxysporum (4%) F. solani (2%) and undetermined Fusarium species (3%) were isolated, while F. subglutinans (1%) was isolated only from the seed of NS Kolubara. Besides Fusarium species, by application of pre-treatment T2, in all examined cultivars the species from genera Cladosporium (6-14%), Alternaria (6-7%) and Acremonium (1-5%) were isolated, and Penicillium spp. (1%) from the seed of cultivar K17. The results obtained indicate that frequency of mycobiota on the seed of red clover depended more on the seed pre-treatment than on the examined cultivars. Considering the significant differences gained in health state of seed by application of T1 and T2 pre-treatments, further investigations should be directed towards the development of method which would show real health state of seed, that is, natural contamination of seed. In this case it is the use of pre-treatment T1.