Impacts of inoculation with Herpotrichia pinetorum, Gremmenia infestans and Gremmeniella abietina on Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana and Cedrus libani seedlings in the field

Herpotrichia pinetorum, Gremmenia infestans and Gremmeniella abietina were inoculated onto 2-year-old Anatolian black pine (Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana) and Taurus cedar (Cedrus libani) seedlings planted in a high mountain forest (1800 m a.s.l) in south-western Turkey, to determine the effects of these fungi during winter. In June, 8 months after inoculation, 39.9% of experimental plants were dead and 20.4% of the surviving plants failed to flush. Gremmeniella abietina and H. pinetorum caused the most fatalities. Prevention of new shoot formation on surviving plants, however, was mainly an effect of G. abietina infections, although many surviving plants inoculated with G. infestans or H. pinetorum also failed to flush. All three pathogens had the potential to severely damage young plants of P. nigra subsp. pallasiana and C. libani growing at high elevations near to forests with heavy inoculum loads. The implications of this finding for P. nigra afforestations at high altitudes in Turkey are discussed. This study is also the first to report that G. infestans can infect and cause disease on young C. libani plants.