Screening for Resistance to Pythium Root Rot among Twenty-three Caladium Cultivars
Zhanao Deng, Brent Harbaugh, R. O. Kelly, T. Seijo, and Robert J. McGovern
Pythium root rot, caused by Pythium myriotylum (Ridings and Hartman 1976), is a very damaging disease to caladium plants (Caladium × hortulanum). Use of disease-resistant cultivars has been an effective and economically viable strategy for integrated management of major diseases in numerous crops. This strategy could be used to control pythium root rot in caladium if resistant cultivars could be identified or developed. In an evaluation of 19 major commercial cultivars, 'Candidum', 'Candidum Jr.', 'Freida Hemple', and 'White Christmas' were found to have moderate levesl of resistance to Pythium. To find more resistant cultivars, 23 additional commercial cultivars were screened using the same Pythium isolates, inoculation and evaluation procedures as described earlier (Deng et al. 2004).
