Prevalence of Sclerotinia stem rot of mustard in northern Bangladesh

An intensive survey of mustard in eight northern districts of Bangladesh during 2013-14 revealed the occurrence of petal and stem infection by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum. Noculum was present in all districts and stem infection was widespread over the region. Sclerotinia sclerotiorum was isolated from both symptomatic petals and stems whereas Sclerotinia minor was isolated for the first time only from symptomatic petals. The incidence of petal infection ranged from 23.7% to 48.7% and stem infection ranged from 2.3% to 7.4%, demonstrating that mustard is susceptible to stem rot disease, however the incidence of disease is not dependent on the degree of petal infection. To our knowledge, this is the first report where both petal infection and the incidence of stem rot were rigorously surveyed on mustard crops in Bangladesh.