Effects of tomato-juice and KH$_2$PO$_4$ as exogenous nutrients on the infection of Botrytis cinerea LVF12 and pathogenicity to tomato were investigated. B. cinerea LVF12, which was previously reported as a casual agent of the gray mold rot of perilla...
Effects of tomato-juice and KH$_2$PO$_4$ as exogenous nutrients on the infection of Botrytis cinerea LVF12 and pathogenicity to tomato were investigated. B. cinerea LVF12, which was previously reported as a casual agent of the gray mold rot of perilla, was used for pathogenesis on tomato leaves. No infection was induced, and no lesion developed on tomato leaves by the conidial suspension of LVF12 when the inoculum was prepared in sterilized water. However, when the conidial suspensions of LVF12 added with various concentrations and conditions of tomato-juice were inoculated on whole tomato plants, the disease was induced readily, Among them, 20% tomato juice with 0.1M KH$_2$PO$_4$ appeared to be the most suitable nutrient to promote high disease incidence on tomato. For the pathogenicity test according to the growing stage of tomato, the mature leaves were more susceptible than seedlings. Symptoms on the infected plants were initial small gray spots at the inoculated area. Later the whole leaves, petioles and stems became gray and eventually fell off, Under high humidity conditions, the diseased leaves and stems were covered with gray hyphae and conidia. All symptoms of infected plants were identical to those in the field conditions.