Abstract:
Seedlings of open pollinated seeds of 119 cultivars of robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) from coffee collections
at Kituza and 8 progeny lines from wilt "hot spot” areas were inoculated to identify resistance to coffee wilt
disease caused by F. xylariodes for effective control of the disease. The plants were inoculated with a field
isolate of Fusarium xylarioides at a concentration of 1.3 x 106 spores per ml using root dip method for 12
hours. 15.4% of the seedlings survived first round of infection. The survivor seedlings were rc-inoculated
and 53% of them survived the second round of infection. The results showed variation in number of survivors
between families and revealed presence of quantitative resistance to the coffee wilt disease among populations
of robusta coffee.