Agricultural Research Division of IANR
Bacterial Wilt of Dry-Edible Beans in the Central High Plains of the U.S.: Past, Present, and Future
Date of this Version
2015
Citation
Plant Disease 99:12 (December 2015), pp. 1665–1677.
doi: 10.1094/PDIS-03-15-0299-FE
Abstract
Bacterial wilt, caused by Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens pv. flaccumfaciens, was first recognized and described as a new dry bean disease near Redfield, South Dakota, after the 1921 growing season on the farm of the Office of Forage Investigations. The grower on this farm informed the federal investigators that he believed the disease to be the same one that killed 90% of his crop in 1920. For the 1921 season, he saved and planted the seed harvested from the previous year, resulting in an estimated 25% loss.
. . .
It is likely that wilt has “reappeared” and become widely established throughout the dry bean production areas in this region, due in part to recent changes in cultural practices, although other factors have undoubtedly also played a role. It also seems likely that the pathogen never disappeared completely but was able to survive at low levels as a saprophyte on weeds, other crop species, or plant residues. In the past, most fields were routinely plowed each season (removing a major source of survival) and may not have been noticed. It is also logical to hypothesize that the disease was simply overlooked (or misidentified) because symptoms of wilt are reminiscent of and potentially confused with common bacterial blight (Fig. 8). The recent data collected and presented here strongly suggest that the return of bean wilt throughout the Central High Plains over the last decade is not due to a single factor but a combination of new changes in cultural practices, environmental stresses, and unfamiliarity with the pathogen and its past history.
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Copyright © 2015 The American Phytopathological Society