There was no obvious link between nitrogen and any disease. The photosynthetic viability and numbers of leaves scored for disease were similar between treatments. In pot experiments, silicon had inconsistent effects on M. graminicola. M. graminicola was not suppressed by straw in pot experiments. A prior inoculation of M. graminicola only primed plant defences against a subsequent attack in the presence of adequate silicon.
Honey is one of the main fruit rot pathogens in pome fruit culture.
M. fructigena is endemic in Europe, Central Asia and the Far East including Japan. It was our aim to investigate to what extent this genetic difference is expressed in phenotypic and biological differences between both geographical groups. A set of 5-6 representative isolates of each group was used in all experiments. The lesion growth rate and sporulation intensity of the pathogen on apple and pear were compared. Intensive stroma formation occurred in all Japanese strains, whilst two of the European strains did not show any after 21 days incubation in darkness.