Anthracnose

Symptom

Anthracnose is a general term used to describe diseases that cause dark brown sunken lesions on leaves, stems, flowers, and fruits. All aerial parts of plants are affected.

The symptom starts with water soaked lessions which later turns brown or black spots. These lesions coalesce and result in extensive leaf blight. The young fruits will darken, shrivel, rot and die on infection. (C.O: Colletotrichum lagenarium).

Management

Seed treatment with Carbendazim 50 WP (2 gram/litre of water for 1 kg of seed) or Pseudomonas fluorescens or Trichoderma spp. (20 gram/litre of water for 1 kg of seed). Anthracnose fungi need water in order to disseminate and infect. They do not spread in dry conditions. So an irrigation system that wets the foliage could result in a disease outbreak.

The diseased twigs should be pruned and burnt along with fallen leaves. Remove and destroy infected crop debris. Spray Carbendazim 50 WP (1 gram/litre of water) or Mancozeb 75 WP (3 gram/litre of water) or Pseudomonas fluorescens (20 gram/litre of water).