Shure, K.B., Hennick-Kling, T. and Acree, T.E. 1994.
Inhibition of fungal infection using sulfite pads prior to initiation of callus from Vitis labruscana cv Concord.
Vitis 33: 177-178.
Incubation of plant material with potassuim metabisulfite was found to inhibit fungal infections of explants from grapevines. Grapevine tissue of Vitis labruscana cv. Concord was incubated with sulfite pads containing 0.4g of potassuim metabilsulfite for one and two days prior to culturing and evaluated against a control that had been surface sterilized with 0.5% NaOCl and 70% ethanol after one week for losses due to microbial contamination. Sulfite fumigation of plant material reduced the incidence of mold infection, particularly in tissue cultures developed from fruit explants which had reductions in contaminantion as high as 10 fold. Continued attempts to isolate contaminats from cultures intitiated from these explants showed no signs of infection.