is a perennial weed occurring in parks, gardens, pastures, orchards, roadsides, vegetable gardens, agricultural crops and horticultural crops. A common weed worldwide, it was originally introduced from Eurasia and now occurs in every province of Canada. It is an aesthetic problem during flowering and seed production, interrupting turfgrass uniformity and density; it reduces yields of agricultural crops; it causes slower drying of hay; its pollen is allergenic; and it acts as an alternative host for several pests and diseases. A number of herbicides are available for its control. Mechanical removal of T. officinale plants has limited success, due to the regenerative capacity of the long taproot. Insects, fungi, sheep and geese have been considered as biological control agents for dandelion.

Field trials tested which components of epidemic development of Puccinia striiformis , the cause of yellow rust, were affected by nitrogen (N) fertilizer applied to winter wheat. Both timing and amount of N were varied to affect canopy size and leaf N content, and to provide a supply of mobile N to the pathogen, by causing fresh N uptake after leaf expansion was complete. No N was applied to control plots. A logistic disease-progress function was fitted to disease-severity data, which were assessed in absolute units. Leaf area and specific leaf N (g N per m 2 leaf tissue) were quantified. Large and highly significant effects of N on the upper asymptotes, or 'carrying capacities' ( c ) were found. Effects on rates and points of inflection of the epidemics were not significant. Early N resulted in larger shoot numbers and leaf area, but disease was also more severe, so that by grain filling, the remaining green leaf areas were larger without N than with N. Later N treatments did not increase canopy size, but did increase symptom area compared with the control. These effects differ from the concept that N affects disease as a result of its effect on canopy growth, and therefore canopy microclimate, and suggest instead a substrate effect. Linear regression revealed that 51% of the observed differences in c were explained by variation in specific leaf N, suggesting that growth of the rust fungus may depend directly on particular components of total leaf N.

The fungal biocontrol agent, Paecilomyces lilacinus strain 251 (PL251), was evaluated for its potential to control the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita on tomato at varying application rates and inoculum densities. Conversely to previous studies, significant dose-response relationships could not be established. However, we demonstrated that a preplanting soil treatment with the lowest dose of commercially formulated PL251 (2 × 10(5) CFU/g soil) was already sufficient to reduce root galling by 45% and number of egg masses by 69% when averaged over inoculum densities of 100 to 1,600 eggs and infective juveniles per 100 cm(3) of soil. To determine the role of colonization of M. incognita egg masses by PL251 for biocontrol efficacy, a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay with a detection limit of 10 CFU/egg mass was used. Real-time PCR revealed a significant relationship between egg mass colonization by PL251 and the dose of product applied to soil but no correlation was found between fungal density and biocontrol efficacy or nematode inoculum level. These results demonstrate that rhizosphere competence is not the key mode of action for PL251 in controlling M. incognita on tomato.

Phoma herbarumwas evaluated as a potential biological control agent for dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) in turf. A preliminary controlled environment study identified selected adjuvants that enhanced disease severity byP. herbarum.Subsequently, these adjuvants were evaluated for disease enhancement under field conditions. Adjuvants evaluated included gluten flour, liposome, guar gum from ground guar (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba), durum (Triticum durum), and pectin. Regression analysis revealed a significant (P= 0.05) increase in disease severity byP. herbarumwhen formulated with gluten Hour, guar gum, or durum semolina compared to treatment with 20% mycelium in potato (Solanum tuberosum) dextrose broth (PDB) alone. No phytotoxicity to dandelion was observed among the adjuvant controls.