The Neglected Side of Black Pod Control

Abstract

Observations on the spread of the PhY./ophthora pod rot disease during the rainy reason and investigations on the mode of survival of P. palmivora through the dry season indicate that diseased pods are important in the initiation and spread of the disease. Diseased pods which were not harvested were found to be sources of infection leading to a rapid spread during the rains whilst pod and husk heaps which serve as perennating sites for the pathogen become sources of fresh outbreaks at the beginning of the rainy season. The present advice to farmers to bury diseased pods should be discontinued as the effect of this practice is a build-up of the pathogen in the soil. It is suggested that the solution to the problem of diseased pods in the survival and spread of Phytophthora pod rot disease lies in convincing farmers to harvest carefully all diseased pods, at all times remove all harvested pods from the plantations and drench all diseased