Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides - Online edition

Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides

Sugarcane pineapple disease (218)

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Photo 1. Infection of sugarcane sett with black rot, Ceratocystis paradoxa, red at first and later turning black.

Summary

  • Worldwide distribution. On sugarcane, banana, pineapple, cocoa, coconut, sweetpotato, and others. Important as a wound fungus.
  • A disease of sugarcane setts.
  • Fungus enters cut ends, turning tissues red and then black with a pineapple smell. Buds and roots fail, plants dieback or are stunted with low sugar content.
  • Spread by spores in wind, by insects, and by run-off water.
  • Cultural control: use healthy setts from mature plants, at least 3-nodes long; drainage; use varieties that sprout rapidly; treat setts with hot water (51°C for 30 mins.); collect and burn trash after harvest.
  • Chemical control: treat setts with carbendazim, if economic.

Common Name

Black rot, pineapple disease

Scientific Name

Ceratocystis paradoxa

AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from CABI (2014) Ceratocystis paradoxa (black rot of pineapples). Crop Protection Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/datasheet/12157). Photo 1 Bureau of Sugarcane Experiment Station, Queensland, Australia. In Kohler F, et al. (1997) Diseases of cultivated crops in Pacific Island countries. South Pacific Commission. Pirie Printers Pty Limited, Canberra, Australia.

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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