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Planting Density Influences Disease Incidence and Severity of Sclerotinia Blight in Peanut
Author(s) -
Maas Andrea L.,
Dashiell Kenton E.,
Melouk Hassan A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
crop science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.76
H-Index - 147
eISSN - 1435-0653
pISSN - 0011-183X
DOI - 10.2135/cropsci2005.10-0335
Subject(s) - sclerotinia , arachis hypogaea , biology , blight , cultivar , sowing , agronomy , limiting , plant disease resistance , incidence (geometry) , stem rot , mathematics , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , geometry , gene , engineering
Sclerotinia blight, caused by Sclerotinia minor Jagger, has become one of the major limiting factors in peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) production. The objectives of this research were to evaluate the effects of plant spacing on disease incidence and severity of Sclerotinia blight in peanut research plots, to measure the level of apparent resistance at different seeding rates, and to determine which methods would produce clearest selection criteria in space‐planted breeding plots. Four peanut cultivars, Tamspan 90, Southwest Runner, Okrun, and Flavor Runner 458, were evaluated in field plots at four plant spacings (6, 15, 30, and 46 cm) in 2003 and 2004. Increased plant spacing improved sensitivity of disease incidence based determination of cultivar resistance but did not increase mean incidence significantly. Disease severity reached the highest level at the widest plant spacing. Final disease incidence provided excellent differentiation of genotypes with different levels of resistance and required the least amount of labor as compared with other methods of disease assessment.