Wound healing, decay and chemical treatment of cut potato tuber tissue

Abstract

Potato tuber tissue inoculated at cutting withFusarium spp. orErwinia carotovora and exposed to conditions favorable for infection did not heal rapidly enough to prevent decay. Seven days of wound healing at 20 C and high relative humidity prior to inoculation were necessary to provide protection againstFusarium and two days were required to protect againstErwinia. Histological examination of cut and chemically treated tuber tissue revealed that the wound healing process was only minimally affected by mancozeb, zineb-streptomycin, zineb-fir bark, captan, captan-mertect, captan-fir bark, and sodium hypochlorite. Ethylmercury p-toluene-sulfonanalide and pyrrolidine induced formation of discontinuous wound periderm after 21 days of healing. Streptomycin and captan-rhodamine had very detrimental effects on wound healing and suberin formation. In general, the seed-piece treatment chemicals tested had only minor effects on normal wound healing. It is concluded that wound healing alone may not be sufficient to controlFusarium caused seed piece decay and chemical treatment is recommended to provide protection until wound healing can occur. At least two days of wound healing are required for control of decay caused byErwinia carotovora.