Pathogenicity of Rhizoctonia solani to strawberry

Rhizoctonia solani was consistently associated with strawberry plants in nurseries or in fruit production fields, with symptoms of progressive decline, stunt, reddening of leaflets, petioles and runners, besides dry rots of the crown apex, estipules and base of the petioles. These plants showed frequently roots with necrotic lesions. Fusarium spp. and Pythium spp. also were isolated from the diseased plants. This study was conducted to determine the role of each referred fungus on the disease and to investigate a possible interaction between them. For this purpose, R. solani, Pythium sp. and Fusarium sp., alone or combined one with other, were inoculated in strawberry plants, in the greenhouse. The results showed that only when R. solani was present, there was an identical reproduction of the symptoms observed in the field. Fusarium and Pythium, nevertheless, were reisolated from root lesions, indicating the possibility of its involvement with the disease, increasing the symptoms of decline under field conditions.

strawberry; Fragaria X ananassa Duch.; Rhizoctonia solani; Fusarium spp.; Pythium spp.; bud rot; decline