Spatiotemporal distribution of tomato plants naturally infected with bacterial canker in greenhouses

The distribution of plants with tomato bacterial canker within a greenhouse was analyzed using Morisita’s binomial index of dispersion, I _B , to assess spatial distribution patterns. The distribution patterns of diseased plants were similar in four commercial greenhouses. The degree of clustering of added together diseased plants based on the I _B index did not increase with time, but the statistical significance of the cluster distribution did increase, suggesting that new independent cluster points had formed during the investigation. Therefore, a scattered pattern of potentially or apparently diseased plants caused by primary inoculum from residual plants in the soil emerged with time.