Anithakumari, P.

Lekha, G.

Muralidharan, P.

English

Update Publishing (E-Journals)

165Stem bleeding disease of coconut, caused byThielaviopsis paradoxa (de Seyness) Von Hohnel,is widely prevalent in all coconut growing regionsin the tropics. The disease has been found to occurin all soil types, but more in laterite soils and sandysoils on the seashore or backwater areas. Thecharacteristic symptom of the disease is theexudation of a dark brown gummy fluid from thegrowth cracks in the trunk, mostly at the lowerportion of the trunk. The lesion traverse upwardsand sometimes many lesions coalesce togetherforming larger patches. The tissues lying beneaththe affected bark also show decay. In later stages,the symptoms are also seen on the crown of theaffected palm. The outer whorl of leaves turn yellowgradually spreading to the inner whorl. The leavesdroop one by one and fall prematurely. The stemapex gradually tapers and crown size is reduced.The fungus T. paradoxa, a weak pathogen, spreadsthrough soil and enters the trunk only throughwounds/growth cracks. Sanal Kumar et al. (1990)reported that application of neem cake in the basinsof affected palms reduces the population of T.paradoxa by encouraging the antagonisticpopulation in soil. The recommended managementpractice for the disease by ICAR-CPCRI includechiselling the lesions on the trunk and treatmentwith Tridemorph (Calixin-5%) followed by hot coaltar after 2 days; root feeding with 5 per cent Calixinthrice a year during June, September-October andJanuary; and soil application of 5 kg neem cake perpalm per year during the September-October months(Ramanujam et al., 1997).In order to assess the effectiveness of thisrecommended management practice in farmer’sfield of Alappuzha district, an on-farm testing wastaken up by KVK-Alappuzha during 2004-08. Themanagement package was effective for controllingthe disease but the recommended chemicalTridemorph (Calixin) was not available in themarket. Swabbing of the lesions on the trunk withTrichoderma viride paste was also effective incontrolling the lesions. Sreenivasulu et al. (2006)reported that basal application of organic manurefortified with T. viride was effective in managingstem bleeding disease of coconut. Hence an on- farmtrial was taken with the objective to refine themanagement package for stem bleeding disease ofcoconut using only bioagents/organic inputs.The trial was conducted in Devikulangara andThekkekkara Panchayaths of Alappuzha district for4 years from 2008 to 2012. One hundred and twentyWCT coconut palms of more than 20 years ageaffected by stem bleeding were selected in fivefarmers’ fields.  Each location had 24 palms (sixpalms per technology option) thus having a total of30 palms per technology option. The followingtechnology options were imposed for themanagement of the stem bleeding disease.TO1: Control (without any managementpractices); TO2: Swabbing the lesions on the trunk(without chiselling) with T. viride paste of 2 x 108Journal of Plantation Crops, 2015, 43(2):165-167Short Scientific ReportManagement of stem bleeding disease of coconut usingTrichoderma sp. and organicsG. Lekha, P. Muralidharan* and P. Anithakumari1ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Alappuzha, Kerala, India1ICAR-Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Regional Station, Kayamkulam - 690 533, Kerala, India(Manuscript Received:10-04-15, Revised:09-05-15, Accepted:02-07-15)Keywords: Coconut, organic management, stem bleeding, Trichoderma*Corresponding Author: mpayani@yahoo.com166Table 1. Effect of different management packages on nutyieldTreatment Nut yield palm-1 year-1Initial After After After1 year 2 year 3  yearTO1 30.2 25.8 20.0 14.2TO2 33.2 32.6 37.6 38.8TO3 36.0 41.6 44.8 57.6TO4 35.6 47.8 55.0 68.8CD (0.05) NS 5.7 5.58 6.33cfu g-1 (100 g 100ml-1); TO3: Swabbing the lesionson the trunk with Trichoderma viride paste; andapplication of neem cake (5 kg palm-1 year-1) +organic manure (FYM/Vermicompost) fortifiedwith Trichoderma talc formulation of  2 x 108cfu g-1  (1%); TO4: Swabbing the lesions on the trunkwith T. viride paste; and basal application of lime@1 kg palm-1 year-1  followed by application of neemcake (5 kg  palm-1 year-1) + organic manure (FYM/Vermicompost) fortified with Trichoderma (1%)after two weeks of lime application. T. viride wasobtained from Dept. of Microbiology, College ofAgriculture, Vellayani, KAU, Thiruvananthapuram.Before applying the treatments, the initialdisease index of all the palms were worked out usingthe formula,DI = 1.8 l + 4.3 twhere, l is the lesion size expressed in 1000cm2 and t is the score for tapering (ranging from0 to 4) (Mathew et al.,1989). Subsequently thedisease index was recorded at the end of first,second and third year. Nut yield of the palms wasalso recorded before and every year after imposingthe treatments.The mean disease index before treatmentapplication was found to range from 20.5 to 20.8(Fig. 1).  After three years, TO4 recorded the lowestdisease index of 19.3 and the control palms recordedthe maximum disease index of 21.7. Even thoughthe change in disease index values appears to bemarginal, the effect on disease control has beensignificant. This is attributed to the reduction in thelesion size by 722 cm2  in TO4 compared to anincrease of lesion size by 500 cm2 in the control,without much variation in the average tapering scoreduring this period. This is supported by results of asimilar study for the management of stem bleedingby Ramanujam et al. (1997) which reported thateven in the best management practice for the diseasecontrol and higher yield, the disease index slightlyincreased by 0.33 after  four years. It could also beobserved that the reduction is considerable after twoyears indicating that the package should be appliedfor a minimum period of two years.Nut yield recorded in the beginning and afterone, two and three years of treatment applicationare presented in Table 1. The treatments hadsignificant influence on the yield of palms after oneyear onwards. The yield increased gradually in allthe technology options while the disease indexdecreased. The complete package of swabbing thelesions on the trunk with Trichoderma paste; andbasal application of lime @ 1 kg palm-1year-1followed by application of neem cake (5 kg palm-1year-1) - organic manure (FYM/Vermicompost)mixture fortified with Trichoderma after two weeksof lime application (TO4) resulted in a yield increaseof 91.6 per cent  from 36 to 69 nuts  palm-1 year-1.The untreated palms recorded a decrease in nut yieldfrom 30 to 14.Lekha et al.Fig.1. Effect of different management packages on diseaseindexOrganic management package including theapplication of lime, organic matter fortified withTrichoderma and swabbing Trichoderma paste onthe affected portions significantly increased the nutyield besides arresting the spread of the disease.167Even though considered as saprophytes whichmultiply inside the dead tissues, some Trichodermastrains are reported to be endophytes which colonizenot only roots, but also the above ground parts ofplants (Bailey et. al., 2006). This ability ofTrichoderma may have aided the control of thedisease even when applied without chiselling theaffected portions, leading to reduction in lesion sizeand prevention of spread. The partners observedthat this management package prevents furtherspread of the disease.  They have also observedflowering of some diseased palms, which hithertodid not, after the treatment with Trichoderma.The organic package comprising ofTrichoderma, neem cake and lime could effectivelymanage the stem bleeding disease of coconut asrevealed by the decrease in disease index andincrease in yield from second year onwards. Thepartner farmers were not only convinced by theresults of this eco-friendly technology, but learntthe method of multiplication, application, and modeof action of Trichoderma also. Application ofTrichoderma in the soil facilitates an increase insoil population of the organism which canprevent the horizontal spread of the disease tonearby healthy palms. Being a simple andfeasible bio–control method, farmers could managethe disease themselves without depending on askilled labour for the purpose.AcknowledgementThe authors are grateful to the Director, ICAR-CPCRI, Kasaragod and Head, Regional Station,Kayamkulam for the facilities and the Zonal ProjectDirector, Bengaluru for funding provided for thestudy.ReferencesBailey, B.A., Bae, H., Strem, M D., Roberts, D.P., Thomas,S.E., Crozier, J., Samuels, G.J., Choi, I.Y. and Holmes,K.A. 2006. Fungal and plant gene expression during thecolonization of cacao seedlings by endophytic isolatesof four Trichoderma sp. Planta (Berlin), 224: 1449-1464.Mathew, J., Nambiar, K.K.N., Jose, C.T. and Anil Kumar,1989. Stem bleeding disease of coconut – a method forindexing the disease severity. Journal of PlantationCrops 17(2): 80 – 84.Ramanujam, B., Nambiar, K.K.N. and Rohini Iyer, 1997.Management of stem bleeding disease  of coconut withfungicides and a biocontrol agent. Journal of PlantationCrops 25: 175 – 179.Sanal Kumar, R. Rohini Iyer and Nambiar, K.K.N. 1993. Invitro inhibition of Theilaviopsis paradoxa by mycoflorafrom coconut basin. In. Advances in Coconut Researchand Development. (Eds.) Nair, M.K., Khan, H.H.,Gopalasundaram, P. and Rao, E.V.V.B. Oxford and IBHpublishing Co. Pvt.Ltd., New Delhi. pp.613 – 614.Srinivasulu, B., Kumar, K.V.K., Aruna, K., Lekshmi, M.V.and Rao, D.V.R. 2006. Biointensive IDM approachesagainst basal stem rot and stem bleeding disease ofcoconut. Journal of Plantation Crops 34: 502-507.Stem bleeding disease management in coconut

Management of stem bleeding disease of coconut using Trichoderma sp. and organics

https://updatepublishing.com/journal/index.php/JPC/article/download/5678/4994/

Management of stem bleeding disease of coconut using Trichoderma sp. and organics

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Update Publishing (E-Journals)