Abstract:

This study was carried out to determine some olive varieties' response to Verticillium dahliae Kleb. widely grown in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. In an initial study to determine the optimal development of V. dahliae isolate at different temperatures, V. dahliae isolate exhibited an optimal growth at 20°C. The optimum growth of an isolate of V. dahliae was determined on four different growth mediums. The colony growth rate was not significant on all the tested media. The detached leaves of seven different olive varieties were assayed on PDA if V. dahliae isolate was attracted to the leaf exudates leached from leaves in vitro. Detached leaves of Memecik (26.90 mm) and Kalamata (26.83 mm) varieties did not affect colony diameter of V. dahliae compared to Control groups on the 8th day. Detached leaves of Domat variety (31.30 mm) resulted in the most significant colony growth of the V. dahliae isolate on PDA. A cross-section of the stem (0.5 cm) was removed from the upper parts of the inoculation point by measuring 1, 2 and 3cm and were planted on the PDA medium to determine the disease severity. Memecik variety displayed the lowest severity of the disease with a rate of 0.44, followed by the Manzanilla variety with 0.66 compared to the other varieties (1, 2 and 3 cm from inoculation point). These results indicated that Memecik was the most tolerant variety in leaf section experiments and stem inoculation treatments. However, Domat was the most susceptible variety according to leaf section experiments and stem inoculation treatments.

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