ISHS Acta Horticulturae 494: II International Symposium on Chestnut
CHESTNUT BLIGHT IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND ITS CONTROL |
| Authors: | M. Uscuplic, M. Trestic |
| Keywords: | Castanaea sativa, chestnut blight, Neurospora crasa, Penicillium rubrum, Trichoderma, vegetative compatibility |
| Abstract:
Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) in Bosnia-Herzegovina is grown as a forest tree species for wood production and is found in three main regions (north-west, east and south of the country). Fruit is the secondary product and there are no selected fruit trees. Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr, the cause of chestnut blight was first observed in the north-west of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1961. For controlling the disease, various methods were used. Felling the infected trees as the standard method for slowing down the spread of the disease was not successful, as successive cuttings of the individual infected trees led to progressive disappearance of chestnut and clear cuttings produced abundantly infected regrowths, thus significantly multiplying infection potential. To prevent infection of young shoots an attempt was made with some antagonistic fungi (Penicillium rubrum, Trichoderma sp., etc.) but in spite of promising results obtained in the laboratory tests, no success was achieved in the field experiments. The use of some chemicals for stump treatment was reasonably successful but not acceptable in practise. Experiments with debarking of fresh stumps to the level of the litter to induce sprouting from the root system reduced infection rate and is the method recommended for chestnut management now. Fortunately severity of the attack is gradually decreasing due to the occurrence of the hypovirulence observed for the first time in 1980. Today, hypovirulent strains are spreading naturally in all chestnut regions and are far more common than virulent ones. C. parasitica population structure study performed in 1996–98 showed that there are 19 EU v/c types, varying from 3 to 14 per site. For vegetative compatibility tests, virus-free hyphal tip cuttings are used to convert C. parasitica hypovirulent strains into virulent ones. | |
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