Project Number: 6401-21220-001-05
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Jul 10, 2008
End Date: Feb 28, 2009

Objective:
To idenify new sources of charcoal resistance in adapted and exotic germplasm.

Approach:
A uniform cultivar screening protocol will be developed and implemented. A set of standard susceptible cultivars will be used. These standard susceptible cultivars will represent early and late cultivars with in maturity groups 3 through 5. Tests will be established in naturally infested fields supplemented with adding inoculum at planting. Disease will be evaluated by rating the development of foliar symptoms of charcoal rot, rate of premature plant death, and by splitting the stems at harvest, visually determining the extent of stem colonization and quantifying colonization by determining the colony forming unit of M. phaseolina. Yields will be taken. Test cultivars will be selected based on previous observations and from other charcoal rot screening tests in the field and in greenhouse and laboratory assays. Soil temperature and moisture and rainfall data will be taken and related to disease development.