RESPONSE OF SUBTERRANEAN HYPOCOTYL REGION OF SEEDLINGS IN SCREENING MUSKMELON (CUCUMIS-MELO) FOR RESISTANCE TO FUSARIUM-OXYSPORUM F-SP MELONIS

Three methods of artificial screening, viz seed-coat puncturing and in oculation, seed and radicle inoculation, and sand infestation, were at tempted for resistance to Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht. f. sp melonis S nyder & Hansen, using 14 genotypes of melons (Cucumis spp) in comparis on with screening in fields. Seed-coat puncturing and inoculation by s oaking in spore suspension proved the best, permitting the classificat ion of genotypes into distinct resistant categories in 28 days. Many a pparently healthy surviving seedlings when uprooted showed different d egrees of damage in the subterranean hypocotyl region. Consideration o f this factor helped exclude the chance of classifying any apparently healthy plants as resistant to the pathogen. 'Chittidar' muskmelon (C. melo L) and 'IC 540' long melon (C. melo L. var utilissimus Duth. & F ull.) showed high resistance in field as well as artificial screening.