Passion fruit Fungal Spots.
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| Pest free |
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| fruits Already attacked by pest |
Photo By Nankunda Racheal
This is a serious fungous disease, which affects leaves, stems and fruit. It occurs mainly in spring and early summer.
Symptoms
On leaves, small brown spots appear first. These enlarge, develop a
lighter-coloured central area, and become irregular or angular in shape.
On fruit, spots first appear as pinpricks, which enlarge into sunken
circular lesions with brownish centres. Spots can develop into extensive
superficial leasions causing premature drop and fruit decay.
Control
Fruit flies can be controlled by destroying the gravid females which
usually breed elsewhere but lay eggs in the orchard. An important step,
then, is to eliminate nearby overripe fruits on which the adults feed
and breed.
Fruit fly adults may be destroyed with various
insecticides. One is malathion 25% wettable powder, which is sprayed at
1.5kg/hectare in 500 liters of water. Absolute caution should be
exercised in making applications and every precaution taken to do so as
safely as possible.
Fruit fly adults may be destroyed also by use
of bait sprays made with 1.5kg of Malathion and 0.5kg of yeast
hydrolysate in 500 liters of water per hectare.
Because the adult
fruit flies roost on plants that are not necessarily host or crop
plants, applications should be made not only on the passion fruit vines
but on all nearby vegetation which might harbor the flies.
Frequency of application depends on the population. When adults are
numerous, applications twice weekly may be necessary when young fruit is
present.
other pests include;
