• Korean Journal Plant Pathology
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.184-190
• /
• 1997

Lesion enlargement of ginger rhizome rot was most rapid at 35~40 C, but delayed greatly as temperature decreased. Time needed for a killing a ginger plant, 22~25 cm long, was about 5 days at 35~40 C, but was 15 days at 15 C in a growth chamber test. Higher RH above 90%, higher soil moisture level above 80% of maximum soil moisture capacity, and deeper planting below 4cm enhanced the lesion development on ginger stems and rhizomes. Pythium myriotylum existed in field soil as forms of hyphal portion, hyphal swelling body, or oospore- or zoospore-like bodies, and served as the origin of its colonization. Inocula of P. myriotylum was randomly distributed in soil surface around ginger plants, but its density was decreased as increasing soil depth with the highest density at 0~10 cm soil depth. Population density of P. myriotylum did not vary significantly between the rhizoplane and the rhizosphere soil of a ginger plant, but differed greatly between the disessed and healthy plants with several to several hundreds times higher population in the diseased plants. A positive curvilinear relationship was found between P. myriotylum density and ginger rhizome rot severity.