Study on Verticillium Wilt of Pistachio and its Control

The present study was conducted on pistachio wilt, which recently spread in Iraq . Results of isolation and diagnosis showed that the pistachio wilt disease caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. Identification was confirmed by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to diagnose the pathogen using a specific pair of primers (FVD and RVD). The PCR results showed that V.dahliae Kleb is the causative agent of pistachio wilt disease in Iraq. The PCR produced two fragments bands of 330 bp as was expected for these two specific primers.
The results of chemical control indicated that the fungicide Beltanol had a surprising effect in reducing disease severity to 0.26n compared to 0.64 in the untreated samples, in addition to its significant effect on studied characteristics.