THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACARID MITES AND BUD NECROSIS IN TULIP BULBS

Tulip bulbs, cultivar Erna Lindgreen, susceptible to bud necrosis were infested with Rhizoglyphus echinopus /F.and R./ and Tyrophagus putrescentiae /Schrank/. Part of the bulbs were decapitated.
After the first month of the storage period a small number of acarid mites penetrated between bulbscales and to the top of the buds.
Bud necrosis occurred only in 16% of checked bulbs.
The number of bulbs with bud necrosis increased after the next two months.
Thirty three percent of undecapitated and 60% of decapitated bulbs showed bud necrosis.
The colonies of acarid mites grew very fast on tulip bulbs with cut tips.
The presence of mites in buds is not necessarily accompanied by bud necrosis.
In 10% of buds without these symptom a high number of mites were found.
The process of mite damage of buds during the period of storage starts from the tip of the buds and stamens are attacked later.
As a result, the buds from which flowering plants develop become decayed.
After the planting of the tulip bulbs lacking external symtoms of bud necrosis, but contaminated with mites, many plants exhibited deformation or/and growth inhibition.

VI International Symposium on Flower Bulbs

B. Czajkowska, C.G.M. Conijn

tulip bulbs, bud necrosis, Rhizoglyphus, mites

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1992.325.106