PREVALENCE OF HELMINTHOSPORIUM SATIVUM, FUSARIUM CULMORUM AND CERTAIN OTHER FUNGI IN EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS SUBJECTED TO VARIOUS CULTURAL AND MANURIAL TREATMENTS

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Abstract
Sixty-two genera of micro-fungi were found in the soil of experimental plots during a 7-year period of sampling. Five saprophytic species (Aspergillus flavipes (Bain. & Sart.) Thorn & Church, Penicillium chrysogenum Thom, P. intricatum Thom, P. restrictum Gilm. & Abbott, and P. terrestre Jensen) made up 52.7 per cent of the fungus colonies found on soil-dilution plates of Czapek's medium agar. The total for two parasitic fungi (Helminthosporium sativum Pamm., King & Bakke, and Fusarium culmorum (W.G. Sm.) Sacc.) usually associated with common root rot of cereals, was only 0.5 per cent.Variation in soil temperature and rainfall during the soil-sampling period did not affect the number of fungus colonies that appeared on the dilution plates; neither did crop rotation nor soil fertilization. However, the location of a plot in the experimental field did affect the number of colonies of Penicillium intricatum and P. restrictum, and the pattern of their occurrence, although different for each fungus, was consistent from year to year. Each of the other five fungi studied was recovered from all the plots with about the same frequency. It is suggested that P. intricatum and P. restrictum are more resistant than the other fungi to ordinary antibiotic agencies of the particular soil considered and are consequently capable of multiplying according to the suitability of the soil habitat.

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