What is tulip breaking virus disease
Tulip breaking virus disease is an ancient and well-known worldwide viral disease, occurring in all tulip-growing areas. In China, it occurs in cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen, Fuzhou and Chengdu. Tulip breaking virus disease causes bulb degeneration, smaller flowers, and single solid flower colors turning variegated. When the disease is severe, there is a risk of destroying the stock.
Symptoms: The disease damages the leaves and corolla of the plant. Infected plants develop light green or grayish-white stripes on the leaves, sometimes forming a mosaic pattern. Petals become deformed; because viral infection affects anthocyanin formation, light yellow or white stripes, or irregular spots, appear on petals of a single solid color, known as "breaking". The corolla of white-flowered lines mostly does not change color; a few white flowers turn pink or red; the corolla color of pink and light red lines changes little; the corolla of black-line tulips changes from black to grayish-black. Flowers become smaller or fail to open. Diseased bulbs degenerate and become smaller, and plants grow poorly and become dwarfed.
Pathogen: The pathogen is Tulip breaking virus. The virus inactivation temperature is 65-70 degrees C; the dilution endpoint is 0.001; the in vitro longevity at 18 degrees C is 4-6 days. The virus has two strains, a severe strain and a mild strain. The severe strain causes faded mottling on leaves and peduncles.
Disease pattern: The virus is transmitted non-persistently by green peach aphids and other aphids. Under natural cultivation conditions, double-flowered varieties are more susceptible to the disease than single-flowered varieties. The virus has a wide host range and can harm many flowers such as Foster's tulip, sharp-pointed tulip, Lilium concolor, tiger lily, Wilson's lily, Korean lily, and Cape asparagus fern.
Control: (1) Strengthen quarantine to control the development of the disease. China imports many tissue-cultured seedlings from the Netherlands and other countries each year, with a relatively high virus-carrying rate, so entry quarantine should be strengthened to control the spread and expansion of the disease. (2) Establish virus-free tulip mother plant gardens and variety bases so as to provide virus-free seedlings to the whole country. (3) Strengthen cultivation management to control the occurrence of the disease. Frequently inspect plants in seed-production plots, and immediately remove diseased plants once found; tulip planting plots must be isolated from lily cultivation plots to prevent mutual infection. (4) Control virus-transmitting aphids. Regularly spray insecticides such as dimethoate and malathion to kill virus-transmitting aphids; repellents are best used.