EFFECT OF PASMO DISEASE ON SEED YIELD AND THOUSAND KERNEL WEIGHT OF FLAX

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Abstract
The pasmo pathogen sporulated freely on potato dextrose agar containing yeast extract. Spores suspended in water with gelatin as a spreader–sticker were sprayed onto flax plants at different stages of growth in field plots. Heaviest infections of pasmo resulted from inoculations at the flowering stage, lighter infections from inoculations on seedlings, and lightest infections from inoculations on ripening plants. Diluting the concentration of spores in the inoculum reduced disease intensity. The four flax varieties in the tests differed in reaction to pasmo. In decreasing order of susceptibility they were: Viking, Redwing, Royal, and Crystal. Heavy infections of pasmo caused premature ripening and reduced the seed yield and weight per thousand kernels of all four varieties. The effects of pasmo infection on seed yield and kernel weight were similar to those caused by a hot, dry climate, and by flax rust. Seed yield and kernel weight were reduced most markedly by inoculation at the flowering stage, less severely by inoculation at the seedling stage, and least of all by inoculation at the time of ripening. Seed yield and kernel weight from plots inoculated when the plants were ripening did not differ significantly from the uninoculated checks. Highly significant positive correlations between the data for seed yield and kernel weight indicated that much of the loss in yield resulted from a reduction in the size of individual seeds.

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