Seasonal Occurrence and Development of Gray Blight of Tea Plants in Korea

Disease occurrence and development of gray blight of tea (Camellia sinensis) were investigated. Higher incidences and more severe damage by gray blight were found in Japanese tea variety Yabukita than the Korean local variety. In Yabukita, Pestalotiopsis longiseta was more frequently observed on the diseased leaves than P. theae but vice versa in the Korean local variety. This indicates that there was the varietal difference in the distribution of fungal species of gray blight pathogens. Both varieties were most severely damaged during the third harvest period with weather conditions of high temperature and humidity favorable to the disease. Presence of the tea brown blight fungus Glomerella cingulata on the margin of gray blight lesion at the late stahe suggested that the pathogenic fungi of tea gray blight were replaced by the brown blight fungus during the disease development.