Cultural, Morphological and Physiological studies of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Abstract

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum a soil borne pathogen which causes symptoms on ripe fruits. Pathogen isolated from infected fruits and grows on different solid culture media. Maximum growth recorded on potato dextrose agar medium. Morphological characters of fungus studied in detail and the causative fungus was identified as Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary. Out of seven natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic media, potato dextrose medium supported the maximum growth and excellent growth of sclerotial production. The pathogen grew within a temperature between, 10°C to 40°C and has maximum growth at 25°C. Preliminary studies were undertaken on the germination of sclerotia by using different, which revealed that sclerotia germinated with the formation of one or more stripes without forming apothecia when incubated at 20±1°C in most Petri dishes containing filter papers. When sclerotia were floated in distilled water in Petri dishes and kept at 20±1°C, they started germination after 21 days with the formation of stripes which produce apothecia measuring up to 5.0 mm, on soil (1 part of soil + 5 part of sand) under pot condition, initially the sclerotia produced stripes after 32 days of sowing which later in most of the cases produced brownish yellow saucer shaped apothecia about 6-9 mm in diameter.