ABSTRACT
Melon rot, caused by Fusarium solani (Mart.), and Sclerotium wilt, caused by the pathogen Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc, are important diseases that affect melon plants. Suitable methodologies for the inoculation of these pathogens in plants are of great importance to studies involving the control of these diseases, such as resistance of different melon accessions. Thus, the present study aimed to determine methods for the inoculation of F. solani and S. rolfsii in melon plants in order to verify a suitable and efficient inoculation methodology for studies with these pathogens. Two experiments were conducted in a greenhouse. In the first experiment, 4 inoculation methods were studied for F. solani in 5 melon accessions. In the second experiment, 5 inoculation methods were tested for S. rolfsii in 4 accessions of the same crop. Experimental design was in randomized blocks with 5 replicates. The used inoculation methods were: inoculation with toothpicks colonized with structures of the pathogen, PDA discs with structures of the fungus, soil infestation with rice colonized with structures of the fungus, and soil infestation with corn colonized with structures of the fungus. For S. rolfsii, the method of sclerotia was added. In both experiments, melon seeds of the cultivars Iracema, Olimpic, A-16, A-50 and A-15 were employed, except A-15 for S. rolfsii. The SAS F1_LD_F1 macro software was adopted to perform the analysis of variance. For F. solani, toothpick and infested rice were the most efficient methodologies. Infested rice was the most efficient method for the fungus S. rolfsii.
Keywords
Cucumis melo; Soilborne pathogens; methodologies