Control of seven grasses with a mixture of three fungal pathogens with restricted host ranges

Three fungi indigenous to Florida, Drechslera gigantea, Exserohilum longiro stratum, and E. rostratum, were isolated from large crabgrass (Digitaria sa nguinalis), crowfootgrass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium), and Johnsongrass (Sor ghum halepense), respectively. In greenhouse trials, these pathogens contro lled the following seven grasses: crowfootgrass, guineagrass (Panicum maxim um), Johnsongrass, large crabgrass, southern sandbur (Cenchrus echinatus), Texas panicum (Panicum texanum), and yellow foxtail (Setaria glauca). Four- week-old seedlings were inoculated with spore suspensions of each pathogen (2 x 10(5) spores/ml) or a mixture of the three pathogens (1:1:1 by volume; total 2 x 10(5) spores/ml). The spore suspensions as well as the control ( water only) were amended with 0.5% Metamucil and the seedlings were sprayed , incubated in a dew chamber for 12 h at 28 degreesC, and then held in a gr eenhouse. All seven grasses were susceptible to each of the pathogens and t he pathogen mixture, each with 100% disease incidence. Two weeks after inoc ulation, disease severity ranged from 83 to 100% for the different grasses. In a host-range trial, 52 plant species were tested, and all nontarget pla nt species were safe from the individual pathogens and the pathogen mixture inoculum amended with 0.5% Metamucil. An emulsion-based inoculum preparati on of the pathogen mixture was also not injurious to the crop species teste d (21 species). Thus, D. gigantea, E. longirostratum and E. rostratum and a mixture of these pathogens were nonpathogenic to the crop species tested, including Poaceae members. It is preferable to have more than one or even t wo pathogens in the grass pathogen mixture to achieve a broad spectrum of w eed control and provide insurance against any possible failure of one or ev en two of the pathogens in any given combination under field conditions. Mo re pathogens (at least three instead of two) with different modes of action and/or sites of action in a combination have a much greater chance of redu cing potential risk of development of resistance in weed populations than a single pathogen used repeatedly. The use of a mixture of these pathogens a ppears to have the potential to be developed further as a bioherbicide syst em to control weedy grasses. (C) 2001 Academic Press.