The pathogen C. acutatum was originally isolated from an infected loquat fruit. It was cultured at 25 °C on potato dextrose agar (PDA), comprised of the extract from 200 g boiled potato, 20 g glucose and 20 g agar in 1 liter of distilled water. Spore suspension was prepared by flooding 14-day-old cultures of C. acutatum with sterile distilled water. The spore suspension was adjusted to 1.0 × 105 spores ml−1 with a haemocytometer.