Reaction of selected apple cultivars to wilt pathogen Verticillium dahlia

The reaction of five apple cultivars to olive wilt caused byVerticillium dahliae Kleb was evaluated. Five apple cultivars (Royal Gala, Delicious Anabri, Double Red, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith) and one olive cultivar (Nabali Mohassan) were inoculated with V. dahliae and grown under partially controlled greenhouse conditions. Typical symptoms of the disease were developed on the inoculated olive seedlings. However, all tested apple cultivars did not show the typical symptoms of Verticillium wilt except cv. Delicious Anbari, which showed 8.31% disease severity. The average percentage of disease severity was 61.2% in Nabali Mohassan. The pathogen was positively re-isolated from the inoculated seedlings of cvs Nabali Mohassan and Delicious Anbari after 12 months from the inoculation date. Results indicate that an apple plantation to replace dead or severely diseased olive trees infested with Verticillium wilt is an appropriate low-cost and environmentally sound IPM alternative approach to control Verticillium wilt.