Occurrence of Rhizoctonia Blight of Zoysiagrasses in Golf Courses in Korea

국내 골프장 한국잔디의 라이족토니아마름병 발생

Incidence of Rhizoctonia blight ranged from 22.2% to 100% in the golf courses at six geographical locations in Korea from 1989 to 1993. Rhizoctonia blight occurred more severly in southern area than in northern area. Fifty seven isolates of Rhizoctonia solani obtained from diseased parts of zoysiagrasses were grouped to AG2-2 by anastomosis test. Pathogenicity testes revealed that this pathogen was strongly pathogenic to Korean lawngrasses(Zoysia japonica, Z. matrella, Z. tenuifolia), but not pathogenic to creeping bentgrass(Agrostis palustris), bermuldagrass(Cynodon dactylon), Kentucky bluegrass(Poa pratensis), perennial ryegrass(Lolium prenne), and creeping red fescue(Festuca rubra subsp. rubra L.). The isolation frequency of R. solani AG2-2 fro sheaths of the infected plants was the highest by 91.67%, and that from stolons and roots was 11.13% and 5.63% respectively. The pathogen was not isolated from the leaves. Population density of R. solani in the lawn of large circular patch was highest on surface soils down to 1 cm deep with the value of 4.9$\times$104 (CFU/g soil), but below 1 cm population density decreased sharply down to 0.8~9.8$\times$103 (CFU/g soil). Horizontal distribution of propagules in turfgrass soil was higher in the margin than in center of patch, where the number of propagules was similar to these of healthy looking soils close to the margin of diseased patch. The meteorological factors influencing the outbreak of the disease were temperature, the number of rainy days and precipitation. Optimum temperature for disease development of Rhizoctonia blight in field was 20~22$^{\circ}C$, and that for hyphal growth of R. solani AG2-2 in vitro was 25~3$0^{\circ}C$. In Pusan area, Rhizoctonia blight first occurred in late April and rapidly developed in late June. The disease slightly decreased during July to August and developed again in late September in 1993. The monthly disease progress in Pusan area was similar to that in Kyeonggi province.