About the Authors

Susanne Schreiter

Affiliations Julius Kühn-Institut – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (JKI), Institute for Epidemiology and Pathogen Diagnostics, Braunschweig, Germany, Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Großbeeren/Erfurt e.V., Department Plant Health, Großbeeren, Germany

Martin Sandmann

Affiliation Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Großbeeren/Erfurt e.V., Department Plant Health, Großbeeren, Germany

Kornelia Smalla

Affiliation Julius Kühn-Institut – Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (JKI), Institute for Epidemiology and Pathogen Diagnostics, Braunschweig, Germany

Rita Grosch

grosch@igzev.de

Affiliation Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops Großbeeren/Erfurt e.V., Department Plant Health, Großbeeren, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KS RG. Performed the experiments: SS RG KS. Analyzed the data: SS RG MS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: KS RG SS MS. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: SS RG KS. Designed software used in analysis of volumetric soil water content: MS.