1 Pea Root Rot and Results of Variety Evaluations

Root rot is an important and widespread disease that often causes significant reduction in the yield and quality of harvested peas throughout the production areas in New York. Pea root rot can be caused by one of several soilborne pathogens or various combinations of root pathogens and also non-pathogens. In recent years, Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi (causal pathogen of Fusarium root rot) has been found to be the most prevalent and damaging on peas, which was followed by F. oxysporum f. sp. pisi (wilt and near wilt diseases). Other known pea pathogens including Pythium ultimum (Pythium root rot), Thielaviopsis basicola (black root rot), Ascochyta spp. (Ascochyta root and stem rots), and Rhizoctonia solani (Rhizoctonia root and stem rots) have also been observed on peas grown in New York, but at lower frequency and severity in recent years. Once introduced, all of these fungal root pathogens are capable to surviving in soil for a long time due to their ability to produce thick-walled surviving units and/or their ability to infect and reproduce on a variety of crops and soil organic materials.