THE EFFECTS OF THE FUNGICIDE PROPICONAZOLE (TILT) ON THE GROUNDNUT SHELL MYCOBIOTA

At two locations, propiconazole (Tilt)(R) was applied to Florunner groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea L.) in volumes of water ranging from 187 to 561 l ha-1 in ground sprays and from 2.3 to 6.4 mm in chemigation applications. A total of 4296 fungal isolates were cultured from groundnut shells obtained from the two sites located near Tifton, Georgia, U.S.A. Nearly two-thirds of the isolates were members of the Fungi Imperfecti. The most frequently observed species were from the form-genera Alternaria, Botryodiplodia, Curvularia, Epicoccum, Fusarium, Nigrospora, Phoma, Rhizoctonia and Trichoderma. The pesticide applications showed few effects on isolation frequency at either test site. Malt extract, potato dextrose and tannic acid-benomyl agar were used for initial isolations. Isolation frequencies of the nine most common genera were significantly different on these cultural media for only Botryodiplodia and Nigrospora.