• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.88-94
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• 2020

Recently, the severe dieback of apple trees resulting from soil-borne diseases has occurred in South Korea. The casual agents of dieback were surveyed on 74 apple orchards that had been damaged nationwide in 2016-2019. The number of apple orchards affected alone by Phytophthora rot, violet root rot, and white root rot was 31, 34, and 3, respectively. Also, the total number of mixed infection orchards was 6. Out of 9,112 apple trees affected by dieback, the trees damaged by Phytophthora rot, violet root rot, and white root rot were 3,332, 3,831, and 44, respectively. Moreover, the total number of mixed infection apple trees was 1,905. The provinces mainly affected were Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk, Chungbuk, and Jeonbuk. The survey on these infected apple orchards will be available to form management strategy for the dieback that had been increased by soil-borne fungal pathogens.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.198-201
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• 2016

Recently, severe dieback of apple tree has occurred in the apple orchards of Chungbuk province. Dieback rate and its casual agents have been investigated on the Chungbuk province apple orchards in 2013-2015. Out of 29,265 apple trees in the 27 orchards throughout Chungbuk province, 4,000 apple trees (13.7%) showed dieback symptoms. The causes of dieback were Phytophthora rot (50.4%), violet root rot by Helicobasidium sp. (27.1%), rodents (10%), white root rot by Rosellinia sp. (6.3%), and freezing injury (6.3%). Compared to previous reports published in 1995 and 2006, Phytophthora rot was the most dominant disease, which is thought to be due to high temperature during growing season and the increase of lowland cultivation. Results of this study will be useful to establish of the management strategy of apple tree dieback that has been increased recently.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2017

The previous study showed that die-back of apple trees caused by soil-borne diseases was significantly high in the apple orchards in Chungbuk province. The correlation between dieback ratio and cultivation environment in apple orchards infected by soil-borne diseases was investigated in this study. The dieback ratio of five orchards diseased by violet root rot and five places infected by white root rot showed significantly positive correlation with Ca content and available $P_2O_5$ content in soil, respectively. Whereas, the dieback ratio of fourteen orchards diseased by Phytophthora root rot was not significant. Subgrouping of cultivation environment analysis showed that the slope degree of orchard and the number of fruit setting also affected the dieback ratio caused by violet root rot and Ca content in soil also affected the dieback ratio caused by white root rot. It showed that the slope degree, soil texture, Mg and Ca content affected the dieback ratio caused by Phytophthora root rot. These results can be applied to reduce die-back ratio by the modification cultivation environment for each soil-borne disease.

• The Plant Pathology Journal
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.513-521
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• 2022

Our study was carried out to determine the control efficacy of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) for violet root rot caused by Helicobasidium mompa in apple. The experiment was conducted in the farm located at Chungbuk province in South Korea from 2014 to 2016. When infected apple trees were treated at least two or three times with 31.25 and 62.5 ml/l available chlorine content in NaOCl, it greatly increased the rooting of rootstock, and restored the tree crown density by 44.4-60.5%. In addition, the number of commercial fruit setting was increased by 54.3-64.5%, and the total starch content in shoots was significantly higher than other non-treated apple trees. However, the untreated disease control and thiophanate-methyl WP treated trees showed the symptom of dieback. Therefore, our results indicate that the drenching treatment of NaOCl with 31.25-62.5 ml/l available chlorine content more than two times from late fall to early spring could effectively control the violet root rot and recover tree vigor up to 60%.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.390-398
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• 2023

Apple white rot, caused by Botryosphaeria dothidea, is one of the important diseases in Korea. B. dothidea can cause pre- and postharvest decay on apple fruit as well as canker and dieback of apple trees. In this study, we isolated bacteria from the trunk of apple trees and tested their antagonistic activity against B. dothidea. Five bacterial isolates (23-168, 23-169, 23-170, 23-172, and 23-173) were selected that were most effective at inhibiting the mycelial growth of the pathogens. The isolate 23-172 was identified as Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and four isolates 23-168, 23-169, 23-170, and 23-173 were identified as Bacillus velezensis by RNA polymerase beta subunit (rpoB) and DNA gyraseA subunit (gyrA) gene sequencing. All isolates showed strong antagonistic activity against B. dothidiea as well as Colletotrichum fructicola and Diaporthe eres. All isolates exhibited cellulolytic, proteolytic and phosphate solubilizing activities. In particular, two isolates 23-168, 23-169 were shown to significantly reduce the size of white rot lesions in pretreated apple fruits. These results will provide the basis for the development of a fungicide alternative for the control of white rot of apple.