COKER 100 WILT RESISTS VIRULENT SOIL DISEASES 
Diseases exact a heavy toll in cotton production each year 
throughout the cotton belt. Soil-borne diseases, or those car- 
ried over in the soil from year to year, are of most importance 
in causing damage to the crop. Although there are many 
soil-inhabiting cotton disease organisms, Fusarium wilt, ne- 
matodes, and Verticillium wilt account for most of the loss 
through interfering with the normal uptake of water and 
fertilizing elements and the translocation of these materials 
to the leaves and other food-making parts of the plant. 
Damage may be light or it may be severe enough to cause 
death of the plant. Loss in yield and quality of seed and lint 
occurs in varying degrees depending on amount of disease 
damage. Such losses may therefore not be obvious to the 
grower in the field except where severe stunting and killing 
takes place. 
FUSARIUM WILT 
Fusarium wilt occurs throughout the Cotton Belt from east 
central Texas and Oklahoma to the Atlantic Seaboard and is 
particularly severe in the lighter phases of Coastal Plain 
soils. Plants affected with this disease become stunted due to 
shortened joints, and leaves become yellow and eventually 
drop as the disease advances. Yellowing of leaves usually 
begins on the leaf margin, and both leaf and plant may 
show a one-sided wilting. Diseased plants have a brownish 
discoloration under the bark, and brown streaks are seen 
throughout the woody stem when it is broken or cut through. 
COKER 100 WILT is highly resistant to Fusarium wilt. 
IMPORTANT NOTE 
Our Coker 100 Wilt Resistant Cotton has been 
bred to produce maximum yield on soils infested 
with Fusarium wilt, and it has some tolerance to 
Verticillium wilt. However, due to the development 
of new races of wilt, complicated by adverse seasonal 
conditions, improper fertilization and cultural prac- 
tices, and the presence in most instances of nema- 
todes, no conscientious breeder can guarantee any 
wilt resistant cotton to survive 100 per cent on any 
wilt infested soils. 
NEMATODES 
Nematodes—the small 
eel-like worms that attack 
plant roots—are present 
in soils over the entire 
Cotton Belt. These small 
parasites, almost invisible 
to the naked eye, not only 
cause serious injury due to 
their feeding on and in 
roots, but pave the way for 
more-ready entrance of 
other diseases such as 
wilts. The nematode caus- 
ing most damage is the 
root-knotting or root-gall 
nematode. Others are se- 
rious pests, however. 
Because of its tolerance 
to nematodes, COKER 100 
WILT RESISTANT COT- 
TON is well adapted to a or 
wide range of soils infested C. H. ROGERS, Ph.D. 
with other diseases. Plant Pathologist 
VERTICILLIUM WILT 
Verticillium wilt is an important disease mainly in the 
Mississippi Delta and the irrigated areas of the Southwest. 
The symptoms are similar to Fusarium wilt and usually 
laboratory diagnosis is necessary to differentiate between the 
two. Quite often these two diseases occur together, along 
with nematodes, in the Delta of Arkansas, Mississippi and 
Missouri. Coker 100 Wilt has some tolerance for, but is not 
resistant to Verticillium wilt. 
Our COKER 100 WILT RESISTANT COTTON has been 
bred and tested on soils heavily infested with wilt and nema- 
todes, and thus provides the grower higher insurance against 
losses from these diseases. High costs of production call for 
elimination of all hazards possible. New races or strains of 
disease organisms may occur, or seasonal and soil conditions 
may be such as to alter, in some cases, the reaction of any 
crop so that losses may be experienced. 
All wilt resistant cotton varieties released by Coker’s Pedigreed Seed 
Company are tested for many years on wilt-infested soils. This picture 
shows two Coker 100 Wilt lines grown on either side of a wilt-susceptible 
check row in one of our Fusarium wilt studies at Hartsville. 
