Snow mold disease of turfgrasses in Manitoba : the causal organisms and their control by application of borax and other organic non-mercurial compounds

Abstract

An in vitro test was conducted to determine the effects of different rates of borax on the growth and/or hydrogen cyanide production of various pathogenic low-temperature basidiomycete (LTB) isolates. All rates of borax reduced the mycelial growth of each isolate considerably, but appeared to have no effect on the hydrogen cyanide gas production by the gas producing LTB-Type B (W5) and LTB- Saskatchewan isolates. Borax was found to be more detrimental to the growth of LTB-Manitoba and LTB-Type A (W1), which appeared to be similiar in many ways, than to LTB-Saskatchewan and LTB-Type B (W5). A second in vitro test investigated the effects of borax concentration and pH on the growth of three pathogenic isolates of the LTB, each being incubated on different culture media. Borax was inhibitory to the growth of all the isolates, particularly at a concentration exceeding 100 ppm. Borax, at all concentrations, was extremely inhibitory to fungal growth with increasing pH on all culture media used. Borax was not a highly lethal compound in vitro, but did have good fungistatic ability against the LTB isolates. On the basis of growth inhibition, the LTB-Manitoba isolate was the most sensitive and the LTB-Saskatchewan least sensitive to the effects of this compound. Finally a field study, conducted at various locations in southern Manitoba, during the fall and winter of 1973-74 was performed to determine the causal organisms and to find a non-mercurial, organic compound or mixture of compounds which would effectively control snow mold of turfgrasses in our area...