Didymella lycopersici (canker of tomato)
Identity
- Preferred Scientific Name
- Didymella lycopersici Kleb.
- Preferred Common Name
- canker of tomato
- Other Scientific Names
- Ascochyta lycopersici (Plowr.) Brunaud
- Diplodina lycopersici Hollós
- Phoma lycopersici (Plowr.) Jaczewski, 1898
- Phoma lycopersici Cooke
- Sphaeronaema lycopersici Plowr.
- International Common Names
- Englishascochyta blightfruit rot of tomatoleaf spot of tomatostem canker of tomatostem rot of tomato
- Spanishpie negro criptogamico del tomatepudricion del tallo del tomate
- Frenchherpes de la tomatepied noir de la tige de la tomate
- Local Common Names
- GermanyKrebs: TomateStengelfäule
- EPPO code
- DIDYLY (Didymella lycopersici)
Pictures
Lesion
Dark brown lesion girdling tomato stem just above soil level.
©AgrEvo
Secondary cankers
Secondary cankers further up tomato stem.
©AgrEvo
Conidiomata within lesion
©AgrEvo
Distribution
Host Plants and Other Plants Affected
| Host | Host status | References |
|---|---|---|
| Capsicum (peppers) | Other | |
| Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) | Main | Muradov et al. (2019) |
| Solanum melongena (aubergine) | Other | |
| Solanum nigrum (black nightshade) | Wild host | |
| Solanum tuberosum (potato) | Other |
Symptoms
The initial symptom is usually a dark-brown, sunken lesion which eventually may girdle the stem just above soil level (Jones, 1991). Secondary cankers may develop later, higher up the stem. The soft, outer diseased tissue contains numerous conidiomata and, in damp conditions, conidia are extruded in slimy pink masses (Holliday and Punithalingam, 1970).
List of Symptoms/Signs
| Symptom or sign | Life stages | Sign or diagnosis |
|---|---|---|
| Plants/Fruit/lesions: black or brown | ||
| Plants/Fruit/mummification | ||
| Plants/Leaves/yellowed or dead | ||
| Plants/Stems/discoloration of bark | ||
| Plants/Stems/mycelium present | ||
| Plants/Whole plant/plant dead; dieback |
Prevention and Control
Cultural Practices
Avoid wounds and high rates of watering. Remove diseased plants. Debris from the previous season's crop should also be removed and destroyed. In glasshouses the humidity should be kept below 90% RH and the temperature above 15°C (Verhoeff, 1962; Fagg and Fletcher, 1987; van Steekelenburg, 1988). Solarization of soil and of the reed canes (Arundo donax) or Eucalyptus stakes used to support tomatoes reduces disease incidence (Besri, 1983; Cartia, 1989; Besri, 1991).
Host-Plant Resistance
Resistance to D. lycopersici on F3- and Bc1-lines from interspecific crosses of L. esculentum with L. hirsutum and with L. hirsutum f. glabratum is not monogenic and is inherited in a dominant fashion (Boukema, 1982). Tomato grafting on the hybrid KNVF has shown resistance to D. lycopersici (Ginoux et al., 1978) but there is no tomato cultivar with complete resistance to the disease (Fagg and Fletcher, 1987).
Chemical Control
Preventive measures include spraying or drenching with iprodione, procymidone, dichlofluanid, maneb, folpet, captan, nabam and benomyl (Knight and Keyworth, 1960; Phillips, 1961; Channon, 1972; Cheah and Soteros, 1983; 1987; van Steekelenburg, 1988; Cheah et al., 1992). Following infection, satisfactory control can be achieved by painting isolated lesions with a mixture of benomyl or iprodione and a mineral oil (Fletcher and Sharpe, 1978; van Steekelenburg, 1988). In systems using the nutrient film technique, a combination of etridiazole or ethyl phosphonate and carbendazim or benomyl placed in the nutrient solution controls the disease (Staunton and Cormican, 1980).
Biological Control
Trichoderma harzianum strain VKM F-2477D gives good control of D. lycopersici and results in yield increases (Grin'ko, 1997). Favaron et al. (1993) demonstrated inhibition of D. lycopersici polygalacturonase by Allium cepa and A. porrum extracts.
Impact
D. lycopersici occurs sporadically in Europe and New Zealand. Modern techniques used in tomato production (culture in nutrient solutions and rockwool) have eliminated soil as a source of inoculum and have, therefore, reduced disease incidence. Despite this, localized outbreaks do occur: in one glasshouse in West Sussex, UK, 105 basal lesions (affecting 12% of the tomato plants) were recorded in June 1985, 6 months after the plants were established on rockwool (Fagg and Fletcher, 1987).
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Copyright © CABI. CABI is a registered EU trademark. This article is published under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
History
Published online: 25 February 2023
Language
English
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