A medium to enhance identification of Septoria musiva from poplar cankers

A series of experiments was conducted to determine the relative tolerance in vitro of an isolate of Septoria musiva (a fungus that causes a severely damaging stem canker disease of poplars) for selected chemicals. Inhibition of diameter growth of this fungus on a V‐8 vegetable juice‐based medium with captan, chlorothalonil, iprodione, mancozeb and streptomycin sulphate at concentrations, respectively, of 50, 1, 10, 10, and 100 mg l–1 was relatively low compared to inhibition of eight other fungi cultured from cankers on poplars. In addition, the presence of captan stimulated profuse sporulation of the fungus. These properties assisted in the identification of S. musiva from cankers resulting from artificial inoculation of poplar branches in the field.