Root diseases of deciduous fruit trees

Abstract

The subject of root diseases of deciduous fruit trees was reviewed by J. S. Cooley in the Botanical Review in 1946 (23). The article which follows is presented as a decennial supplement to Dr. Cooley's review. This article is intended primarily as a review of work in, or closely related to, this field and which has been published during the past decade. Attention here is centered largely upon those fields which have been the focus of investigative attention during this time, rather than upon a broad coverage of both active and inactive aspects of the field. The past decade has not been a period marked by the reporting of new root diseases of major importance. This phase of the treefruit root disease problem was extensively explored and reported upon much earlier. More recent investigations have been in the fields of remedial and preventive measures, manner of infection and spread, the role of environmental factors in disease development, and many other related problems. Attention has also been given to the nematode and virus diseases in this review. The former are logically included, since they are wholly root diseases. The latter are systemic, but rootstocks play an important part in dissemination of some virus diseases. Attention is centered primarily on the root disease problems of the pome and stone fruits as they occur in the United States and Canada. This is not to imply that the root disease problems elsewhere have been treated as essentially different, for they are not necessarily so. The treatment of foreign investigations and of foreign literature is not presented as being comprehensive. References to foreign work regarded as of interest or possible application have been included.