Fungal species associated with collapsed strawberry plants cultivated in strawberries plantations in Morocco

Strawberry plants of Venicia variety severely affected by collapse which has leads to their total drying were brought by a farmer in the laboratory in spring 2011 from Dlalha village (Gharb-Loukkos, Northwestern Morocco). The ignorance of the causes of this decline required a mycological laboratory analysis based on the identification of fungi colonizing samples and calculating the infection percentages for different vegetative organs. The highest isolation proportions reaching 50% and 38.4% were recorded respectively by Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria alternata on strawberries, 30 and 55.5% on strawberry leaves, increasing to 56.4% and 65% on stems also hosting Fusarium oxysporum isolated with a frequency of 30.4% and Fusarium sp. (13.4%). On the aerial parts, 8 fungal species were poorly represented and whose contamination percentages ranging from 4.35% to 11.1%. Isolations made from the crown and roots allowed detection of Macrophomina phaseolina, F. oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani whose proportions vary from 28.6% to 52.6%, 38% to 42.1% and 42.8% to 47.36%. However, weaker frequencies of isolation were assigned to Cylindrocarpon desctrutans, Pythium sp. and Phytophthora sp. not exceeding 10.53% and 5.26% respectively. These telluric agents were accompanied by Aspergillus nidulans (19.05%), Trichoderma sp. (4.76%) and Cuninghamella sp. (9.52%).