A laboratory bioassay for evaluating pathogenicity of Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia solani isolates to strawberry stolons

Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizoctonia spp. are the most important soilborne pathogens of the strawberry crop that cause seriously reduced yields. Various methods are being used to determine pathogenicity of these fungi isolated from strawberry; however, they take a long time to grow strawberry plants. They also encounter some problems to provide a large number of healthy plants for the pathogenicity tests. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a faster and more reliable pathogenicity test for soilborne fungal pathogens of strawberry by using the stolons of healthy strawberry plants. The stolon inoculation method was demonstrated to be easy and rapid for properly distinguishing soilborne fungal species of strawberry, whether pathogenic or non-pathogenic, and also for assessing the isolates for virulence.