plant-fungal interactions

[Peter Herman]

Subject: Re: plant-fungal interactions
Newsgroups: bionet.mycology
References: <43l9bs$kj3 at newserv.ksu.ksu.edu>
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ldavy at ksu.ksu.edu wrote:
: A friend told me that she had lost her entire garden (in peak
: condition with ripe tomatoes, flowers, etc) suddenly in August at
: about the same time she had an explosion of mushroom emergence.

: She thinks that the mushrooms did her garden in.  Another friend of
: hers suggested something in the soil...perhaps a fungal pathogen.

It is also possible that the same environmental trigger influenced both
fungal emergence and garden death!  I don't think that a single species of
fruiting basidiomycete is a likely cause of death across such a wide host
range of graden plants.  On the other hand, a damp period which would
encourage basidiocarp formation would also make a whole variety of wilt or
root rot fungi as happy as a clam. One or more of these could easily wipe
out a garden in a flash because they can be fast growers and fast killers!

Peter

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R. Peter Herman				email	Peter.Herman at mv.slu.se
Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet		Phone:	+46 18 67 12 20
Inst. f. Markvetenskap			Fax:	+46 18 67 27 95
S750 07 Uppsala, Sweden		
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