Sporulation of Pyricularia grisea at Different Growth Stages of Rice in the Field

Sporulation patterns of rice blast fungus were studied at relatively later stages of leaf blast and neck blast seasons in Icheon, Korea. This experiment was done by detaching lesion-bearing leaves and panicle bases. The number of conidia remaining on the leaf blast lesions of different cultivars from Jul 20 to Jul 23 ranged from 3,640 to 82,740 spores. More conidia were observed on the adaxial surface because they were released from abaxial surface. After heading, sporulation was observed from the lesions on the flag leaves but the number of spores was less than in the late July. Detached panicle bases or uppermost internodes infected by Pyricularia grisea produced abundant amount of conidia. Among these panicle bases, 30.1 mm size lesion recorded the highest count of 244,560 spores. When we compared the sporulation amount using the KY-type spore trap, more conidia were recorded from intact lesions than from the lesions which removed conidia and conidiophore The ratio of conidia release against total sporulation ranged from 20.5%-25.0% for leaf blast and 8.2%-25.3% in the neck blast. Effective inoculum potential was also discussed.