Occurrence of root parsley pathogens inhabiting seeds

Abstract

The studies on root parsley pathogens inhabiting seeds were conducted during 1981-1988 and in 1993. Filter paper method with prefreezing and keeping under light was used. Each test sample comprised 500 seeds. Pathogenicity of collected fungal isolates was tested following two laboratory methods. 238 seed samples were studied. 18 fungal species were found but only 7 proved to be important pathogens of root parsley. The most common inhabitants of root parsley seeds were <em>Alternaria</em> spp. <em>A.allernata</em> occurred on 74,8% of seeds but only a few isolates showed to be slightly pathogenic while <em>A.petroselini</em> and <em>A.radicina</em> were higly pathogenic and inhabited 11,4 and 4,2% of seeds, respectively. The second group of important pathogens were species of <em>Fusarium</em> found on 3,9% of seeds. <em>F.avenaceum</em> dominated as it comprised 48% of <em>Fusarium</em> isolates, the next were as follow: <em>F.culmorum</em> - 20%, <em>F.equiseti</em> - 15%, <em>F.solani</em> - 8%, <em>F.oxysporum</em> - 7% and <em>F.dimerum</em> -2%. Some fungi like <em>Botrytis cinerea, Septoria petroselini</em> and <em>Phoma</em> spp. inhabited low number of seeds, respectively O,4; 0,5 and 0,8%, but they were highly pathogenic to root parsley. The fungi: <em>Bipolaris sorokiniana, Drechslera biseptata, Stemphylium botryosum</em> and <em>Ulocludium consortiale</em> showed slight pathogenicity. They were isolated from 3,8% of seeds.