Major Nursery Diseases of Agroforest trees in

Bangladesh and their management

K. M. Golam Dastogeer PhD

Dept. of Plant Pathology
BAU, Mymensingh
Agroforest Nursery In Bangladesh

• To date, actual forest coverage in Bangladesh

is less than 10 percent
• Agroforestry means a mixed cultivation of trees
and crops (fruit trees, timber trees, bamboo,
vegetables, spices, medicinal plants etc.)
• Over 69’000 families are involved in the nursery
sector, either as nursery owners, part or fulltime
labourers or as associated actors like input
suppliers.
 Common Nursery diseases in BD
Disease Host Plant Cause
Seed Eukalyptus, Koroi, Aspergillus sp., Fusarium sp.
rot/Germinati Shimul, Jam, Teak Macrophomina phaseolina,
on failure Botryodiplodia theobromae,
Curvularia
Damping off Eukalyptus, Koroi, Pythium sp., Phytophthora sp.,
Narikeli, Pine, Sissoo Corticum sp., Fusarium,
etc. Sclerotium sp. Rhizoctonia sp.
Phoma sp. etc.
Root Rot Rubber, Gamar, Teak Fusarium solani, Fusurium sp.
Dieback Keora, Kadam Chaetomella raphigera,
Rhizoctonia solani
Leaf Spot Rubber, Jali bet Corynespora cassiicola,
Guignardia calami
Disease Host Cause
Leaf Blight Oil palm Curvularia
eragrostidis
Bird’s eye spot Rubber Drechslera heveae
Anthracnose Shimul Colletotrichum
capsici
Wilt Raintree, Cherry and Verticillium sp.,
other berrey Fusuruim sp.
Canker Jackfruit Nectria
haematococca
Butt rot Oak, Sal, Teak, Fungi
Mahogoni, Pine etc.
Heart rot Many deciduous trees Fungi
 Important Nursery diseases

Disease: Damping off

Pre-emergence: seedlings are attacked

by fungi and are killed in the soil
before emerging out or germination.

Post-Emergence: Seedlings are

attacked by fungi on the
hypocotyls or roots or both
while still in cotyledon stage.
Seedlings may collapse on
ground.
 Disease Cycle
• Phytophthora sp. survives in the soil as resting spores called
oospores.
• Oospores are formed in infected roots and are eventually released
into the soil following breakdown of the rotted roots.

•Optimum conditions for

germination of oospores,
infection, and disease
development include
temperatures of 65° to 75°F
and nearly saturated soils.
•Under these conditions,
the oospores germinate to
produce sporangia, which
release the infective motile
zoospore stage
Disease cycle of Phytophthora
Factors affecting damping off

• High MC
• Acidity PH >5
• High OM
• Clay soil
• Dense population
• Excessive fertilizer esp. N2
 Management
• Good drainage
• Fine texture soil
• Soil amendment with saw dust, sand, ash etc.
• Maintain soil pH 5.00 to 6.0…Liming?
• Moderate density of seedlings.
• Balanced fertilization
• In case of regular high incidence of damping-off, the disease
can be prevented by steam sterilization of nursery soil or
drenching soil with 2% formalin or application of fungicides
(thiram, captan, copper oxychloride).
• Soil drenching with BAU-Biofungicide (3.0% solution).
 Disease: Root Rot
Host : Gamar
Pathogen : Fusarium solani
Symptoms:
►Reduced growth and dull green color
of leaves compared to deep green
color of normal foliage.
►This is followed by death of apex of
the shoot and gradual dying out of the
leaves. Such death occurs in irregular
patches in the nursery.
► Small light brown spots appear first
on secondary roots which turn brown
as decay progresses.
► At advanced stages of the rot only
the woody tissues of the roots remain.
Control:

• Maintain nursery hygiene

• Application of fungicide, Zineb @ 100g/m2 or 0.5%

as soil drench in areas of dead, dying and

surrounding healthy seedlings.

• BAU-Biofungicide ( 0.3% ) as soil drenching.

 Disease : Root Rot
Host : Teak
Pathogen : Pseudomonas solanacearum

Symptom:
►Root rot appears as gradual death and
dying up of leaves beginning from the
lower ones.
►Rots first appear in fine feeder roots,
then move into the main tap root where
brownish to blackish discoloration develop
in the pith and surrounding woody tissues.
Management
►Raising teak nursery on sites having well
draining soil.
►Avoiding water logging condition.
 DISEASE: ROOT ROT
Host: Rubber
Pathogen: Fusarium spp.
Symptoms:
• Yellowing of leaves followed by
drying out of seedlings due to rotting
of root.
• Collar region predisposed by water
logging condition in nursery beds or
polyethylene bags containing the
seedlings.

Control:
• Avoiding water logging condition of polybag or nursery soil.
• maintaining better soil aeration by way of breaking and crust formation on top
layer of soil.
• Application of Dithane M 45 @ 50g/16 lit. of water and applied as soil drench
at the onset of early disease symptom.
 Disease: Dieback
Host : Rubber
Pathogen: Botryodiplodia theobromae
Symptoms:
►The symptom first appears as pale green
discoloration of the leaves of the grafted
shoots.
►Later turn yellow and finally dry out and die.

Control:
►Germinated seeds should be planted in
polyethene bags, instead of nursery beds,
where grafting should be done.
►Upon successful grafting, transplanting will be
done on the polyethene bag directly.
 Disease: Leaf Spot
Host : Rubber
Pathogen : Corynespora cassiicola

Symptoms:
►The symptoms first appear as yellowish
brown spots which thereafter turn to pale
gray.
►Later, spots enlarge and coalesce to give rise
to large necrotic areas.

Control:
Application of Dithane M 45 (0.2%) may
effectively control the disease.
 Disease : Bird’s Eye Spot
Host : Rubber
Pathogen : Drechslera heveae
Symptoms:
►At the early stage light brown discoloration which
ultimately results necrotic spots with pale centre
and dark brown margins develop on leaves.
►This results in premature defoliation, and dieback
may occur.

Control :
• Shading the nursery plants reduces the disease incidence.
• Maintain seedlings in vigorous condition through adequate balanced
nutrition.
• Application of Dithane M 45 (0.2%) may effectively control
• the disease.
 Dieback of Kadam
Rhizoctonia solani
Symptoms:
►The disease starts as rot at one or more spots
on leaves.
► Such rots gradually develop and coalesce to
form bigger necrotic areas killing both young and
old leaves simultaneously.
►Seedlings with affected leaves exhibit healthy
roots.

Control:
► Application of a foliar fungicide such as copper
oxychloride, Dithane M 45 @ 0.2% should be good
enough to control the disease.
 Disease : Leaf Spot of Jali bet (Calamus tenuis)
Guignardia calami
Symptoms:
►The disease starts as light brown
spots on leaves which later on
coalesce to form large irregular
spots.
► In severe case, the leaf spots is
such that most of the leaves may be
killed so that the affected seedlings
dry out.

Control:
► Generally 2 to 3 weekly applications of
Dithane M 45 @ 50g /16 litres of water and
applied at the onset of early symptom
expression .
 Leaf Blight of Oil Palm
Curvularia eragrostides

Symptoms:
►The leaf blight appears as small,
irregular, light brown spots or patches
on the leaf tips or on the edges of leaf
blades first on the young leaves and
then on older ones.
►The lesions gradually enlarge and
their centers dry out and turn gray.
►Distinct demarcation between healthy
and diseased zone will be formed.
Control:
Five foliar sprays at weekly interval with
Benlate (0.5%) applied on every 400
seedlings raised in polyethylene bags.
 Dieback of Kewra
C.O: Cystospora sp.
Symptoms:
►The plantations reveal a high proportion
of side branches dying or top dying
condition.
►The condition was most severe in
Chittagong division slightly less in Barisal
and the least in Noakhali coastal Control :
plantations. Application of
►Dying branches showed a clearly Dithane M 45 @
defined transition zone of progression of 0.2%
infection in most of the branches. A fungus
was consistently associated with the
transition zone of infection.
 Massive Mortality of Kewra

Symptoms:

►Death of leaves, twigs, branches and ultimately

the whole tree.

►All trees in some plantations die in progressive

succession.

►Dying trees show gradual yellowing of leaves

followed by total leaf fall.

►The dead branches also break-off because of

strong wind action
Causal Factor:

►Sudden heavy siltation in coastal plantations covers all the

pneumatophores at and around the basal area of keora trees.

►Thus the aerenchyma of the pneumatophores become deprived

of free oxygen supply.

►Lack of oxygen resulting in the death of the roots, death of the

leaves, twigs, branches and ultimately the whole trees.

Control:
Development of a barrier (either a canal to divert sand or a
narrow embankment to stop sand against the progressively
advancing line of siltations is recommended.
 Bamboo Blight
Pathogen: Sarocladium oryzae
Symptoms:
►Blight appears on young growing
culms (generally 1- 5 meters in height)
in August, the disease being at its
worst by mid November.
►Blight starts as death and decay of
culms sheath and then of culms at
nodes which progresses both up and
down the nodes of growing culms.
►The nodes of the young culms breaks
at the point of maximum decay.
► Sometimes, death and decay may
totally destroy the whole of a culms.
►One year old truncated bamboo
shows the presence of light brown
transition zone of advancing infection
on the rind of the culms.
►Splitting of such portion of the culms
would reveal the presence of fine
thread like whitish mycelia of a
fungus.
Control:

►The bamboo blight can be controlled to a large extent by

improving cultural practices such as removal of blighted
culms, burning debris in situ in clumps in April.

►Adding new soil in and around clumps in April-May before the

onset of monsoon.

►The application of Dithane-M 45 as a soil drench or spray

(0.2%) is advisable.
 Mistletoes in Plantation
Host : Gamar, Teak and Malakana Koroi
Symptoms:

►Angiospermic parasitic bushes having

green foliage and small branches in
rather dense clusters are seen to grow
on various parts of the crown of the
affected trees.
►The parasite produces flowers and
fruits.
►The parasites prepare food through
photosynthesis as they have green
foliage and engulf the host branch and
ultimately kills the portion of host
branch.
 Parasite/ : Scurrula gracilifolia, S.parasitica
and Dendrophthae falcata

Control:
• Mechanical control through pruning is the most effective method
for removal.
• Growth regulators such as ethephon provide a degree of
temporary control but repeated applications are required.
• Severely infested trees should be removed and replaced with
less susceptible species to protect surrounding trees.
• Alternatively, gamar/teak should be planted in mixture with
evergreen species having leading canopy in which case
infestation by the parasite of partially shaded gamar canopy
would be very minimal.
 Root Rot of Pyinkado
Pathogen: Ganoderma lucidum
Symptoms:

►The first symptom appears as pale

green color of the foliage of the upper
portion of the crown.
►Then gradually progresses as light
yellow, then yellow and ultimately dries
up and fall off.
► The bark become very much
permeated by white mycelia of the
pathogen and reaches the collar region
causing a complete girdle.
► Then the foliage start drying up. Later,
the twigs and branches dry up. Pyinkado
Ultimately the death of the crown
results.
Control:
►Disease can be effectively controlled by the use of 2% formalin in
water as soil drench during the early stage of symptom
expression.
► Digging out a trench of about 25 cm in width and of 1m in depth
around an infected pyinkado tree will arrest further spread of the
pathogen to neighbouring trees through rhizomorph.
► Raising mixed plantations of pyinkado and trees resistant to
attack by G. lucidum will also help to reduce the build up of
infection by the pathogen.
► Teak (Tectona grandis) is known to be resistant.
 Dieback of Jackfruit
Cause: Nectria haematococca

Symptom:
►First dieback appears as pale green of
the leaves, then progressively change to
light yellow, yellow to reddish yellow.
► The older leaves fall off first followed
by younger ones.
► After the leaves fall off, the branches
die.
► At first small, young branches die
which is followed by the older ones.
Control:

►It can be controlled by applying Cupravit, or

Dithane M-45 (0.2%).

►Irrigation during dry season.

► Removal of infected parts along with a small

portion of diseased parts.
 7. Canker of Jackfruit
Cause: Nectria haematococca

► The cankers on jackfruit trees start as blackening of bark generally at the

bases of small dead branches.

► The dead area gradually expands followed by light brown discoloration.

► The canker affected portion fails to add any new growth, and a
depression usually develops.

► On the bark of the dead area small, rounded, reddish-yellow fruit bodies
of Nectria haematococca develop profusely during the monsoon.
 Control:

►It can be controlled by applying Cupravit, or

Dithane M-45 (0.2%).

►Irrigation during dry season.

► Removal of infected parts along with a small

portion of diseased parts.