Preliminary tests on winter cereal varieties of resistance to low temperature parasitic fungi in controlled conditions

The present work describes a method for the testing of the resistance of winter cereal varieties to Fusarium nivale, Typhula ishikariensis and T. incarnata. The shooting of the plants was carried out in greenhouses and after a period of 3 weeks of coldhardening the plants were infected, covered with cellulose wadding and placed in a temperature of 2°C. Once the varieties with the highest susceptibility were severely infected by the fungi the test was suspended and the plants were given some 2 weeks to recover prior to being analysed. The tested varieties were well known from field trials during a number of years. The results agree in the main with those obtained in the field. The Finnish winter wheat and winter rye varieties showed a greater degree of resistance to the above fungi than the Swedish ones. The injury inflicted by F. nivale on winter rye was more severe than that on the winter wheat varieties. T. ishikariensis and T. incarnata were considerably more pathogenic to wheat than F. nivale, and the tested varieties showed varying degrees of resistance to these fungi. The results likewise point to a correlation existing in the resistance to the three low temperature parasitic fungi