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The response of 13 European cauliflower cultivars to Verticillium longisporum was evaluated using two greenhouse tests and one in vitro inoculation test. The greenhouse tests involved dipping roots of 3-week-old seedlings in a conidial suspension or inoculating the soil of 3-week-old seedlings with Verticillium microsclerotia. The in vitro test involved the inoculation of 9-day-old seedlings with Verticillium conidia. Useful disease parameters were the area under disease progress curve and plant growth reduction for the greenhouse tests and fresh weight reduction for the in vitro test. Significant correlations were found among the three inoculation methods. Irrespective of the inoculation method used, cultivar‘Sernio’ was most resistant to V. longisporum, while‘Minaret’ was the most susceptible cultivar. The pathogen could be re-isolated from the hypocotyls and from the stem of‘Minaret’ 4 and 49 days after inoculation respectively, whereas V. longisporum could never be re-isolated from‘Sernio’. These results suggest that the more resistant cauliflower cultivar‘Sernio’ can suppress the ascent and the proliferation of V. longisporum into the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bean anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum lindemuthianum, severely reduces bean production world-wide and rapid methods are required to investigate bean–C. lindemuthianum interactions. In this study, bean cvs Boterkoning, Saxa and Admires were inoculated with C. lindemuthianum race 69 using three different methods: germinated seed inoculation, seedling inoculation and detached leaf inoculation. Although the methods gave similar results, inoculation of detached leaves was the best method. In order to compare the susceptibility of bean at different developmental stages, cvs Prelude, Boterkoning, Saxa and Admires were used. Leaves harvested from 6-, 8-, 10-, 12- and 14-day-old plants were inoculated with C. lindemuthianum races 9, 69, 385, and 401. Race 9 was virulent to the four bean cultivars at all the tested stages; cvs Admires and Saxa were resistant to races 69, 385 and 401, whereas cv. Boterkoning was susceptible. Plants of cv. Prelude were sensitive at 8 days of age, but resistant when 12 and 14 days old. The present results suggest that the resistance of certain bean cultivars is not equally expressed at all the developmental stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]