Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.) is one of the oldest cucurbitaceae plants in the world.
During summer 2012, growing season, bottle gourd plants showed wilted symptoms pre-maturely in August with
patches similar to those of sudden death syndrome. Discoloration in cortex tissues of taproot and lower stems are
typical. These symptoms often known by charcoal rot dry-weather wilt or summer wilt. The causal fungus was isolated
and identified as Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid. Pathogenicity test indicate the ability of M. phaseolina to
cause the disease symptoms on bottle gourd plants. Seeds treated with different chemical inducers at 10 mM
significantly reduced charcoal rot severity compared with the control. Seeds treated with oxalic acid showed the highest
reduction of disease severity followed by CaCl2. On the other hand, treatment with KH2PO4 and CaCl2 as seed soaking
demonstrated higher values for vegetative growth as total dry weight than the untreated control. According to the
available literature, this is the first report of bottle gourd charcoal rot disease caused by M. phaseolina in Egypt.