Fungi Isolated from Southern Forest Tree Nursery Soils

Few general surveys for soil fungi have been made in more than one southern state. Abbott (1) made a survey of the microbiological activities of some Louisiana soils while Miller et al. (6) made a survey of fungi in cultivated and forest soils of Georgia. Other workers have isolated fungi from the soil in several southern states, but for the most part their isolations constituted a study on specialized groups of fungi (2, 3) or ecological studies (5, 7, 8, 10). In the period from 1956 to 1961, forest tree nurseries in 10 southern states were visited during a study of root rots of nursery stock. Soil samples were assayed for fungi from most of these nurseries. Although the soil samples were taken entirely in forest tree nurseries, they may be considered representative of the cultivated soils in the South. In general, the soils are relatively fertile and moderately low in organic matter (0.5-3.0%). Soil types range from sands and sandy loams of the coastal plain, clay loams in the piedmont, to silt and clay loams of the mountain valleys. Various grains, grasses and legumes are grown in rotation with seedlings of pine and hardwood species. One difference from agricultural soils is the generally more acid condition of the forest nursery soils, which range in pH from about 5.0 to 6.2.