Summary

Worldwide distribution. On banana and relatives. Minor fungal disease.
Oval, tan spots with black border, usually on older leaves. On the fruit, sunken dark brown or black spots, 2-4 mm wide, surrounded by dark green halo. Spores not produced on the fruit.
Spread by airborne spores from dead leaves during rains.
Cultural control: remove dead leaves from plantation every 14-28 days; desucker plants to aid air movement and drying of leaves; promote heathly growth with fertizier and/or manures; mulch, but not with old banana leaves.
Chemical control: unlikely to be needed.

Common Name

Banana Deightoniella leaf & fruit spot, banana leaf blotch.

Scientific Name

Deightoniella torulosa. Previously known as Brachysporium torulosum.

AUTHORS Grahame Jackson & Eric McKenzie
Information from Diseases of fruit crops in Australia (2009). Editors, Tony Cooke, Denis Persley, Susan House. CSIRO Publishing. Photo 1 (taken by Eric McKenzie), and used in this fact sheet, appeared previously in McKenzie E (2013) Deightoniella torulosa PaDIL - https://www.padil.gov.au. Photo 2 Tropical Banana Information Kit: Problem Solver. Queensland Governemnt. (http://era.daf.qld.gov.au/1656/6/5protrbn_part1.pdf).

Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

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