SEARCHING FOR CITRUS ROOTSTOCKS RESISTANT TO MAL SECCO DISEASE: A REVIEW
Mal secco disease (MSD) is a severe tracheomycotic disease of citrus caused by the mitosporic fungus Phoma tracheiphila. Besides lemon, the most sensitive species, MSD also affects other citrus species, such as citron, lime, bergamot, chinotto, sour orange, rough lemon or volkamer lemon.
When the infection is through rootlets of a susceptible species, more frequently in the nursery but also in bearing plants in the grove, the pathogen may be restricted for many years to the inner layers of wood, leading to a form of the disease known as mal nero, a syndrome characterized by blackish discoloration of the hard wood and by the absence of almost any external symptom.
Eventually, after several years, the pathogen reaches the sapwood, causing a sudden collapse of the canopy, even on resistant scions.
Host resistance remains the most desirable goal among the measures to control MSD, and the search for new resistant rootstocks to replace the susceptible ones, has long been pursued by Italian researchers.
This paper reviews the conclusive data collected over almost three decades of research, conducted both in the field and in a controlled environment, on the behaviour of putative lemon rootstocks towards MSD. The rootstocks tested include: alemow, sour orange (S. Marina and undetermined selections), Ichang lemon, Yuzu orange, Nansho Daidai sour orange, Siamelo, Yuma citrange, Sacaton, Swingle 4475, and Swingle FF9 citrumelos, and the hybrids Cleopatra mandarin × Poncirus, and Christian Poncirus × Cleopatra mandarin.
Franco Nigro, , Antonio Ippolito, and Mario G. Salerno, (2015). SEARCHING FOR CITRUS ROOTSTOCKS RESISTANT TO MAL SECCO DISEASE: A REVIEW. Acta Hortic. 1065, 987-991
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1065.123
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1065.123
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1065.123
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1065.123
Citrus, rootstocks, Phoma tracheiphila, resistance
English