Disease Occurrence Status in Ginseng Cultivation Fields Caused by Pathogens of Ginseng Root Rot in South KoreaDisease Occurrence Status in Ginseng Cultivation Fields Caused by Pathogens of Ginseng Root Rot in South Korea

Background: Ginseng is a high value medicinal herb and cash crop in Korea. It takes four to six years to reach ginseng root harvest. Over the extensive cultivation period, ginseng is targeted by many pathogens.BRMethods and Results: We investigated the disease severity of ginseng root rot in 27 harvest fields. The highest disease severity was Hongcheon 1 (2.92) and the lowest was Ansung 1 (0.04). Ginseng lesions were collected and the pathogens were identified by the color of the fungus. A total of 587 pathogen strains were isolated from the ginseng root rot. Of these strains, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was sequenced for 141 isolates. The sequence of the ITS region revealed Ilyonectria radicicola, as the main disease of ginseng root rot in 45 isolates. Fusarium solani occurred in 44 isolates, F. oxysporum was in 45 isolates, and 7 other fungi also existed. The fungi isolated from six years old ginseng harvest fields were grouped into I. mors-panacis, I. cyclaminicola, I. robusta and I. liriodendri in the I. radicicola complex. F. solani, was divided into two groups.BRConclusions: Analyzing the correlations between ginseng root rot pathogen and disease outbreaks provides a basis for establishing a pathogen control strategy during ginseng cultivation.