OCCURRENCE OF FUSARIUM NIVALE IN SOIL

Eusarium nivale (Fr.) Ces. was not isolated directly from soil using Warcup plates of pentachloronitrobenzene agar. When seeds of oats, untreated or treated with an organomercury disinfectant, were sown in soil from this same source and the roots or mesocotyls of seedlings given serial washings in sterile distilled water, the fungus readily grew into agar. The fungus was not isolated directly from the samples of the seed, but in pot experiments could be isolated from ungerminated, non‐disinfected seed sown two months previously. Lesions attributed to attack by E. nivale were not present on the plants. It is suggested that the plants became infected from inoculum surviving in the soil. Copyright © 1969, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved