Some factors influencing the infection of tulip sprouts by Botrytis tulipae

Abstract

It is generally assumed that tulip bulbs with symptoms of infection byBotrytis tulipae will produce diseased sprouts, but experiments have shown this danger to be relatively small. Sprout infection is found to be influenced by several factors, e.g. the degree of infection of the bulb, the presence of the brown tunic around diseased bulbs, the length of the growth period between planting and flowering, and the soil temperature. The yield of salable flowers was found to depend on the location and intensity of sprout infection; no flowers are formed when sprouts are heavily infected.