Reactions of several chili cultivars against Colletotrichum capsici and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides
N Arfiani, R P Riswan, I S Risnawati, N Amin, Asman, Fatahuddin and A Nasruddin

Department of Plant Pest and Disease, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia 90245

Abstract

Anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum spp. is one of the most damaging chili diseases. The purpose of the current study was to determine the pathogenicity of two important pathogens of chili anthracnose disease Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz) Penz. and Sacc. and C. capsici E.J. Butler and Bisby on several chili cultivars in laboratory. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design in factorial. The first factor was chili cultivar: Gandewa, Lado, Laris, Pilar, Provost, Bhaskara, and Bara- and the second factor was inoculation method: wounding and non wounding the fruits. For non wounding inoculation, 10 microliter of conidial suspension was dropped in the middle part of the fruit. While, for the wounding inoculation method, the middle part of the fruits was pricked with a needle about 1 mm deep before 10 microliter of the conidial suspension was dropped on the wound. The treated fruits were then placed inside of plastic boxes separately and incubated in room temperature. Symptom severity was assessed 48 h after the inoculation and every 24 h thereafter for a total of four observations. The results showed that for non wounding inoculation, all cultivars were highly resistant against C. gloeosporioides and C. capsici with no symptom, except Gandewa was moderately susceptible to C. gloeosporioides. However, for the wounding inoculation, all cultivars were infected by both C. gloeosporioides and C. capsici with varying severity levels. None of the cultivars tested was resistant to both pathogens. Lado and Pilar were moderately resistant to C. gloeosporioides while the other cultivars were moderately susceptible or highly susceptible. For cultivar reaction against C. capsici, Gandewa, Lado, Laris, and Provost were moderately resistant, and the other cultivars were moderately susceptible.

Keywords: Anthracnose, Colletotrichum capsici, Wound, Without wound

Topic: Integrated pest and disease management