Development and Suppression of Grapevine Black Foot Caused by Ilyonectria radicicola

Abstract

Present study investigated the development and suppression of grapevine black foot using a highly virulent strain of Ilyonectria radicicola during 2010-2012 after its widespread outbreak in Duhok - Iraq since 2008. Inoculated roots showed distinctive symptoms of sunken necrotic lesions with internal black streaking of rootstocks. Production of mycelial mass (in vitro) was higher at pH 5.0 resulting in 57% severity of foot rot compared to 46.16% at pH 7.0. In general, Kamali cv. was the most susceptible cultivar with 59.29% of stubby root growth affected compared to 53.32% and 40.83% on Rashmew and Taefi cvs. respectively. Wounding roots of a susceptible cultivar developed the conspicuous symptoms of black foot rot with a severity of 90%. Increasing the conidial inoculum was essential for severe infection development to more than 62%, whereas interaction between inoculation and wounding of roots increased lesion severity to 80.09%. However, acidic pH significantly enhanced disease progression on inoculated vine cuttings to 84.41% compared to 40% at neutral pH. Unfortunately, inoculum of Ilyonectria radicicola was not suppressed significantly even with fungicide application and continued its damage on Rashmew cv. Resulting in disease severity of 23.70% . More than 25% of the inoculated vines grown in amendments of Trichoderma harzianum and farmyard manures were infected compared to 14.80% and 20.73% of the non-inoculated. Exclusion of fungal inoculum improved the plant vigours as measured by dry weight and shoot growth, whereas significant stimulation of root growth were evidenced in the amended treatments particularly those with farmyard manures and fungicides.