VERTICILLIUM WILT OF POTATO IN RELATION TO VASCULAR INFECTION OF THE TUBER

Abstract

Several potato varieties, differing in their susceptibility to Verticillium albo-atrum Reinke & Berthold, differed similarly in the degree to which the fungus invaded the vascular tissue of stems and tubers. Surface-sterilized, internally infected seed pieces consistently gave rise to a lower incidence of wilt than healthy seed pieces of the same variety carrying surface-borne inoculum only. In all the varieties tested, a preponderance of tubers produced by wilted plants were apparently free from vascular infection, and those that were infected more often than not gave rise to wilt-free plants.