Summary

This paper addresses the question: “What is the level of resistance against powdery mildews, Botrytis cinerea and Sclerotinia sclerotium in several Petunia (Petunia sp.) genotypes of unknown origin?”. It serves to enrich our understanding of fungal resistances in ornamental petunias and the availability of genetic resistance in wild and domesticated germplasm. The three fungal diseases can cause devastating harm by killing the ornamental plants or greatly reducing their ornamental value to the point they are of no worth to growers and consumers. As the use of fungicides continue to lose popularity and restrictions on their use increase, to growers, growing cultivars with an inherit resistance to fungal pathogens becomes a robust solution to keep them healthy and prevent loss of revenue. This paper offers insights to support future breeding efforts for the development of resistant petunia cultivars