Sweet Corn Disease Nursery

Stewart's Bacterial Wilt

Erwinia stewartii

Rating Stewart's Wilt

Following inoculation, plants are rated for Stewart's wilt symptoms on a 1 to 9 scale, where 1
= no appreciable spread of symptoms from wounds; 2 = limited water-soaking, chlorosis or
necrosis within 3 cm of wounds; 3 = limited spread from wounds, chlorosis or necrosis
predominantly towards tips of leaves; 4 = abundant spread from wounds, chlorosis or necrosis
towards both ends of leaves; 5 = minimal systemic infection, a few symptomatic streaks on non-
inoculated leaves; 6 = moderate systemic infection, symptoms on 5-25% of leaf area, minimal
stunting; 7 = abundant systemic infection, symptoms on 25-50% of leaf area, distinct stunting; 8
= 50-90% of leaf area symptomatic, severe system infection and stunting; 9 = 90-100% of leaf
tissue symptomatic or dead plants. Ratings <3 indicate limited spread of E. stewartii that is
indicative of resistant or moderately resistant reactions. Ratings of >5 indicate systemic infection
by E. stewartii that is indicative of moderately susceptible or susceptible reactions.

Since Stewart's wilt reactions vary among plants in an experimental unit (usually a 1- or 2- row
plot with 10 to 15 plants per row), and it would be very time consuming to give each plant an
individual rating, we typicallygive each plot three Stewart's Wilt ratings that are indicative of the
variation within the plot. For example, a rating of 2-5-6 indicates that about a third of the plants
have symptoms that are about a 2, a third are about a 5, and a third are about a 6; although within
the plot there may be a few plants that are 3s, 4s or 7s. Likewise, in a plot rated 3-3-3, most
plants have symptoms typical of a 3. For most analyses, we use the mean of the three ratings per
plot.
 Rating Scale

Click to see a larger image.

Examples

Rating 1 Rating 1 Rating 1

Rating 2 by natural occurance Rating 2 Rating 2

Rating 2-3 Rating 3 Rating 3

Rating 4 Rating 4 Rating 4-5

Rating 5 Rating 5-6 Rating 5-6

Rating 6-7 Rating 7 Rating 8

Examples of Differentiation

Ratings of 7, 8, 4-5, and 7-8 MS (above) and MR (below)

 Susceptible sweetcorn, resistant
Susceptible Resistant S, MS, MR
white food-grade