Abstract:In north-western Italy serious losses were observed in cultivated (Eruca vesicaria) and wild (Diplotaxis spp.) rocket varieties infected by Fusarium oxysporum, as one of important diseases in horticultural production. For the evaluation of varietal resistance of rocket to Fusarium wilt, forty-four varieties of rocket, belonging to cultivated and wild rockets, respectively, were chosen for resistance test carried out in glasshouse from June to November, 2004. Roots of 30 day old plants were artificially inoculated by dipping in a spore suspension (1×106 cfu/mL) of the pathogen. The trials were independently conducted, with three replicates, using, as inoculum, a mixture of thirty-two strains (MIX) isolated from different varieties of cultivated and wild rockets, and other two strains, Fus.Ruc.9A/02 and Fus.Ruc.13/03, respectively, gotten from two different varieties of wild rocket. The trials were repeated twice. Two indicators were used to evaluate the different resistance, one of which was percentage of dead plants, the other disease index (DI). Significant correlation (P<0.01) was found between these two indicators, which showed that both methods were feasible for the evaluation of rocket’ s resistance to Fusarium wilt. The majority of rocket varieties showed a resistance to strain Fus.Ruc.13/03, while the majority of them showed a susceptibility to mixtured strains MIX and strain Fus.Ruc.9A/02. MIX and strain Fus.Ruc.9A/02 behaved similarly on the tested varieties and were more virulent than strain Fus.Ruc.13/03. The varieties 12/03 and 20/03 showed a high resistance to MIX, the varieties 6/03 and 7/04 showed a high resistance to strain Fus.Ruc.9A/02, and the varieties 9/02, 2/03, 5/03, 6/03, 7/03, 9/03, 11/03, 12/03, 20/03, 21/03, 24/03, 3/04, 6/04, 7/04 and 11/04 showed a high resistance to strain Fus.Ruc.13/03.