OCR Text |
Show Parasitic Fungus Growth Attacks Potatoes, Beets That finicky fungus, known widch as Rhizoctonia, and causing ar equally well-known disease of potn toes, sugar beets and other crop shows differences which may ac count for some of its eccentricities according to E. L. LeClerg of Lou isiana State university, as the result of investigations in co-operation with the United States department of agriculture. j Reported in Phytopathology, the plant-disease specialists' journal LeClerg shows how the Rhizoctonia from the potato will not attack sugar sug-ar beets, whereas the same organism organ-ism from sugar beets will attack po tatoes. Investigating further, LeClerg found that the threads composing the body of the sugar-beet Rhizoctonia Rhizoc-tonia were appreciably and signif- j icantly thicker than those of the po- i tato organism. The sugar-beet form also grew faster in laboratory tests, and made its best development around 86 degrees Fahrenheit, while the potato form, the slower grower, developed best at round 77 degrees. The sugar-beet Rhizocton also seemed to be more highly parasitic against other test plants than did the potato form. |