Articles
RESISTANCE IN SOME PRUNUS SPECIES IN JAPAN AGAINST BLOSSOM BLIGHT, CAUSED BY MONILINIA LAXA (EHR.): PRUNUS ARMENIACA VAR. ANSU MAXIM., PRUNUS ARMENIACA L., PRUNUS MUME SIEB. ET ZUCC. AND INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDS AMONG PRUNUS SPECIES
The reaction of 123 cultivars and hybrids, attacked by Monilinia laxa (Ehr.) was investigated.
Forty-three of them belong to P. armeniaca var. ansu Maxim., twenty – to P. armeniaca L. and eleven are their hybrids.
Thirty cultivars belong to P. mume Sieb. et Zucc., thirteen are interspecific hybrids (ISH) and six are ISH’s parents.
The percentage of damages was determined by three separate visual observations.
It was found, that blossom blight, caused by Monilinia laxa can be one of the most harmful diseases for Ansu cultivars in the conditions of Japan.
In spite of their relatively higher resistance to blossom blight in comparison to European apricots, Ansu cultivars can not be used as a reliable donor of resistance to Monilinia laxa. Only two cultivars were practically resistant to blossom blight (damages up to 3 %): “Shinyo” and “Banseioomi”.
All the observed Mume cultivars were immune to blossom blight.
They can be a reliable donor of resistance to this disease in the breeding programmes for improvement of apricots. “Bungo” type of Mume cultivars, which are in fact Mume x Ansu hybrids, possess low resistance to blossom blight, except the cv. “Takadaume”.