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Ecology and Epidemiology

Persistence of Pseudomonas solanacearum in Artificially Infested Soils. S. M. McCarter, Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Genetics, University of Georgia, Athens 30602; Phytopathology 66:998-1000. Accepted for publication 10 February 1976. Copyright © 1976 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-66-998.

Pseudomonas solanacearum persisted 4 years in two field soils artificially infested by clipping beds of young tomato plants with a contaminated mower followed by soil incorporation of the resulting diseased plants. The infestation remained high in one soil as indicated by 99.0, 91.0, 95.2, and 98.1% infection of Marion tomato plants during the 1972-75 test period. In the second soil, 93.0% of Marion plants were infected the second year after the soil infestation, but infection percent dropped to 65.9, 60.8, and 63.1 during the following 3 years. More than 90% of Venus and Saturn plants, used as resistant checks, remained free of wilt symptoms although as high as 29.5% of symptomless plants had P. solanacearum in their vascular systems.