isolated from a naturally infected gerbera plant grown in
soil. The inoculation was carried out by putting
95–100 g/plant of the Phytophthora infected kernels near
the basal foliar stems of gerbera plants to obtain a severe
natural zoospore spread. Only two plants for each row
were inoculated and placed immediately before the
storage tank, to prevent pathogen spread throughout
the drain water to other pots (arrows in Fig. 1). Plants
which completely collapsed were replaced with new
inoculated ones. The rows with open system were
maintained closed for 4 weeks after the inoculation to
foster zoospores spread in the nutrient solution.