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Reduction of Bacterial Wilt by Early Harvest of Tomato Transplants. S. M. McCarter, Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens 30601; T. H. Barksdale(2), and C. A. Jaworski(3). (2)(3)Research Plant Pathologist and Soil Scientist, Crops Research Division, ARS, USDA, Beltsville, Maryland 20705, and Tifton, Georgia 31794. Phytopathology 61:849-851. Accepted for publication 22 February 1971. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-61-849.

Tomato plants grown in fields of southern Georgia infested with Pseudomonas solanacearum and transplanted at Beltsville, Md., showed a higher incidence of bacterial wilt when harvested and transplanted late in the season than when harvested early. In 1970, wilt in hand-pulled plants ranged from 3.3 and 1.3% in plants harvested on 14 and 27 May to 35.6% in plants harvested on 10 June. Plants removed from the soil with a shovel to simulate machine harvest usually did not show more wilt than hand-pulled plants. A higher incidence of wilt in late- than in early-harvested plants with a uniform root-dip inoculation indicated that factors in addition to holding period of transplants in southern fields are involved.

Additional keywords: vascular pathogen, Lycopersicon esculentum.