Relationships between temperature and latent periods of rust and leaf-spot diseases of groundnut

The effect of temperature on the latent periods of rust, late leaf spot and early leaf spot diseases of groundnut caused by Puccinia arachidis, Phaeoisariopsis personata and Cercospora arachidicola , respectively, was studied. The latent periods (LP) of rust, late leaf spot and early leaf spot ranged from 12–49 days, 13–38 days and 13–39 days, respectively, between 12°C and 33°C An equation relating the rate of pathogen development (1/LP) to temperature was fitted using daily mean temperatures to provide three cardinal temperatures: the minimum (T_mln), optimum (T_opl), and maximum (T_max), T_mln was about 12°C for rust and about 10°C for the two leaf-spot diseases. T_opt, for all three diseases was close to 25°C. T_max was 31°C for early leaf spot, and extrapolated values for late leaf spot and rust were about 35 and 40°C, respectively.
For P. personata , a temperature response curve was fitted using data only from controlled environment experiments. This curve was used to simulate latent periods from both mean daily and mean hourly temperatures in the field. There was substantially better agreement between observed and simulated latent period with hourly temperatures, provided the developmental rate of the pathogen was determined at a constant temperature.