Podblight of the Lima Bean Caused By Diaporthe Phaseolorum

Abstract

The Lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.), compared with some of the other truck crops, is relatively unimportant from a commercial standpoint. It is grown in a small way in the garden by nearly every farmer, and on a commercial scale in a few sections of the United States, particularly along the Atlantic seaboard and along the Pacific coast. Like many other crops grown only for home use or on a commercial scale in a limited area, its several pests and diseases have either been overlooked or ignored . . The Lima bean, however, has its share of diseases, some of which have been fairly well studied, while little is known about others. To the latter class belongs the pod blight, a disease of considerable economic importance some seasons in commercial fields. It was first discovered by Halsted (I6)1 in 1891, in New Jersey. Further than this nothing isknown as to the time and place of the origin of the disease.