Seven days after the BCA applications, each pod was challenged by a suspension of 2 105 zoospores mL1 of P. palmivora which was also sprayed to near run-off. To prevent wash off by rain, to induce stomata opening that facilitate pathogen penetration, and to obtain a homogeneous infection for all inoculated treatments, pods were again covered with plastic bags from 1 day before until 24 h after this inoculation, being removed afterwards. After 13 days, disease symptoms were scored based upon the following scale: ‘1’ = no sign of disease symptoms; ‘2’ = restricted lesions of approximately 2 mm in diameter or 5 mm in length; ‘3’ = expanding lesions with diameters from 0.2 to 2 cm; ‘4’ = lesions and/or necrosis of several sizes, covering up to 25% of the pod surface; ‘5’ = extended lesions and necrosis over 25% of the pod surface. The whole experiment was repeated 1 month later. The experiments were conducted on a completely randomized design, with each endophyte concentration (treatment) being applied on 10 pods (replicates). For the analysis of variance, the severity score was converted to their square root and the means were compared by the Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) test. A logarithmic regression analysis was performed based on a linear scale for the disease scores (y axis) and a logarithmic scale for the spore concentrations (x axis), using the data analysis tool of the Microsoft Office Excel 2003.