School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences - Theses
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ItemAn investigation of potato gangrene in Victoria : including the identification and comprehensive study of the causal organism, Phoma foveata Foister and a comparison of the Scottish and Victorian isolates with P. eupyrena Sacc., P. solanicola Prill et Del. and Phomopsis tuberivora Guss et Fost( 1957?)In October 1963 attention was drawn to the possibility of an hitherto unknown storage disease of potatoes in Victoria. Diseased tubers if the variety ton ware brought to the Plant Research Laboratory, Burnley, from a property at Clarke's Hill, via Ballarat, and a pycnidial-forming fungus was isolated consistently from lesions by Anderson (1953). Later that month, apparently identical isolates were obtained from diseased tubers of two other varieties which were received from the same property. In consequence, an investigation of dry rots in storage was commenced in September, 1954. One of the original objectives was to determine whether this pycnidial-forming fungus was a causal organism of tuber rot. As the investigation proceeded, it became evident that the fungus in question was responsible for a particular type of rot. In other countries similar types of tuber disease have been attributed to species of the Phomaceae. In the detailed study that followed, attempts were made to identify Victorian isolates with, or to distinguish them from, some of these other storage pathogens. As a result of the investigation, the pycnidial forming fungus has been identified as Phoma foveats Foister.. This fungus is responsible for the disease known as Gangrene of tubers in the British Isles. It has not been recorded previously outside that area. Although most of the work described in this report is laboratory in nature, one of the main aims has been to collect information which may may assist in determining an approach to the control of the disease.