Rhizoctonia

Rhizoctonia is a genus of soilborne fungi in the class Heterobasidiomycetes that includes several important plant pathogens affecting food crops. Rhizoctonia solani is the most significant species, causing damping-off of seedlings, stem canker and black scurf of potatoes, sheath blight of rice, and root rots across cereals, legumes, and vegetables, while Rhizoctonia leguminicola causes blackpatch disease of clover and related forage legumes. These fungi persist in soil and crop debris as sclerotia, attacking plants at the soil line and reducing both yield and market quality. Control is challenging because the pathogens have wide host ranges, so growers rely on integrated strategies: crop rotation with non-host species, resistant or tolerant varieties, careful irrigation and soil drainage management, and biological control agents where available.