Follow straw-bit method for artificial inoculation of R. solani in rice.

Dear Arup. I have worked with R. solani in turfgrass in order to evaluate compost amendmends in disease supressiveness. What we did for artificialy inoculating turfgrass is this:

- inoculum was prepared into glass flasks containing 50g of oat kernels hydrated with 50 ml distilled water and steam sterilized. Oat kernels where then infested with PDA blocks(one 9cm PDA petri dish covered with R. solani Hyphae cut in slices (aproxiamtely 1cmX1cm) and incubated in a growth chamber at 22oC for 15 days while shaken periodicaly to ensure uniform infection of kernels.

- Turfgrass seed was sown in plastic pots 10X10X10 mm containing potting soil

- ten days after sowing grassess were inoculated with 10 kernels of infected oat per pot just undernath soil sufrace in a uniform patern

- all pots were covered with plastic bags previously sprayed with water to ensure 95-100% relative humidity.

- pots were kept in water containing plastic basins to ensure high soil moisture conditions.

- symptoms were recorded after 2 weeks

This method worked well with turfgrass and I don't see why it wouldn't with rice.

I hope you success with your experiments.

Best wishes

Tasos Malandrakis