Yield of glasshouse tomatoes as affected by strains of tobacco mosaic virus

Abstract

In the latter part of the summers of 1963, 1964 and 1965 the effect of an early inoculation with different strains of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) upon yield was investigated. All experiments were carried out in the same glasshouse-compartment and with the tomato variety ‘Moneymaker’, the plants being grown in plastic pails containing ordinary potting soil. In 1963 a green strain, a distorting strain and a yellow (or aucuba) strain were used, all capable of causing local lesions onNicotiana tabacum ‘White Burley’, which reaction is characteristic for the tomato-type of TMV. Since unfavorable conditions affected control plants more than infected plants, the green strain caused no significant loss of yield. Plants infected by this strain yielded only 3% less weight of fruit than the control plants and even had a 12% greater number of fruits. Plants infected by either the distorting or the yellow strain yielded 43 and 65% respectively less weight of fruit and 32 and 48% respectively fewer fruits. In 1964 the same green strain of the tomato-type TMV was compared with a green strain of the tobacco-type TMV, which is characterized by a systemic reaction on ‘White Burley’. Plants infected by the tomato-type and tobacco-type green strains ylelded 16 and 21% respectively less weight of fruit than the control plants and 11 and 18% respectively fewer fruits. In 1965 the same green strain of the tomato-type TMV was used and compared with another green strain of the same virus, which in addition caused local lesions onN. glauca, and with a yellow ringspot strain, which showed the tomato-type reaction on ‘White-Burley’. Plants infected with these three strains yielded 14, 18 and 17% respectively less weight of fruit than the control plants, but only 2, 6 and 6% respectively fewer fruits. The relatively small reduction in the number of fruits and an appreciable delay of the harvest probably resulted from the fact that the plants in this experiment were inoculated in the seedling stage.