Banana

Pests

Banana pseudostem weevil

SN : Odoiporus longicollis

Nature of damage and symptoms

 Grub bore into pseudostem making tunnels.

 Blackened mass comes out from the bore hole.
 Tunnelled part decomposes and pseudostem wilts.

Management

1. Use longitudinally split pseudostem trap @ 65/ha (with 20g of Beauveria bassiana applied
inside).
2. Biocontrol using Beauveria bassiana or Metarhizium anisopliae @20 g/L (can be availed
from stores of KAU).
3. Apply 0.03% Chlorpyriphos or quinalphos 0.05 at leaf axil.

Banana rhizome weevil

SN : Cosmopolites sordidus

Nature of damage and symptoms

 Grubs bore into the rhizome, base of suckers and into roots.
 The corms of the attacked plants have tunnels plugged with excreta.
 Scarcity of leaves and production of undersized bunches.

Management

1. Use cosmolure trap @ 5/ha.

2. Cut and remove the outer layer of rhizome and sun dry the rhizome for 3-4 days after
smearing it with slurry of cow dung and ash.
3. Pare the rhizomes and apply neem cake @ 1 kg/plant at the time of planting.

Banana aphid

SN : Pentalonia nigronervosa f. typica

Nature of damage and symptoms

 Leaves are bunched into a rosette appearance

 stunted growth and leaf margins are wavy with upward rolling

Management

1. Encourage growth of predators like Scymnus, Chrysoperla carnea and other coccinellids
2. Spraying dimethoate 30 EC 850 ml/ha.

Diseases

Bunchy top disease

Causal agent: Banana Bunchy top virus

Symptoms

 Leaves reduced in size with narrowed lamina and shortened petiole, produced at shortened
internodal length, become erect and brittle and crowded at the top (bunchy top).
 Leaf margins also show chlorosis and slight curling and necrosis.
 Infected plants show marked stunting.

Management

1.Eradicate disease affected plants.

2.Use disease free suckers for planting. Karpooravally, Kanchikela, Njalipoovan and Koompillakannan
are less susceptible varieties.

3. Vector control with systemic insecticides, viz., Phosphomidon @ 1ml/l or Methyl demeton or
Dimethoate @ 2 ml/l

Panama wilt (Fusarium wilt)

Causal agent: Fusarium oxysporum f. Cubense

Symptoms

 Faint yellow streaks on the petiole of oldest, lower most leaves.

 Longitudinal splitting of pseudostem.

 Vascular discolouration in cross sections of rhizome appears reddish brown towards

periphery progressing in to centre of rhizome.

Management

1.Dipping of suckers in carbendazim (0.1%) solution before planting.

2. Remove and destroy affected clumps alongwith corms.

3. Application of lime (1-2 kg/pit) to the infected pits after chopping of the plants parts.

4. Varieties such as Palayankodan, Robusta and Nendran are resistant to the disease.

Sigatoka leaf spot

Causal agent: Mycosphaerella sp.

Symptoms

 Small reddish brown specks on leaves near the tip or margin of lamina.
 Specks increase in size and turn in to spindle shaped spots with reddish brown margin and
gray centre surrounded by a yellow halo.
 Spots coalesce and the entire spotted area appears dried.

Management
1. Spraying mancozeb or cholorothalonil @ 0.2% suspended in mineral (paraffin) oil.

2. Spray 1 per cent Bordeaux mixture with sticker soon after the appearance of the initial symptoms
of the disease.

3. Growing moderately resistant cultivars like Karpura Chakkerakeli.

Kokkan disease

Causal agent: Banana bract mosaic virus

Symptoms

 During the young stage, pinkish streaks on the pseudostem.

 Necrotic streaks visible
 Leaves of the infected plants also show travellers palm like leaf arrangements.
 The fingers are small, curved and widely divergent with pale green to ashy green colour as
compared to healthy ones.

Management

1. Dry heat treatment of suckers at 400 C for 1 day.

2. Raising barrier crops like sunhemp in three to four rows on the field boundaries to check aphids
from entering the fields from neighbouring infected fields.

3. Vector control with Methyl demeton or dimethoate@ 0.2% at 3 – 4 weeks interval.

Infectious chlorosis

Causal agent: Cucumber mosaic virus

Symptoms

 Loss of leaf colour in patches, appearance of parallel chlorotic streaks on the younger leaves
giving a striped appearance of the leaves.
 As the disease progresses, leaves emerge distorted, margins become irregularly wavy, often
with blotches of necrotic tissues and the lamina is reduced in width.
 The affected plants produce only small bunches. This is a virus disease transmitted by
aphids.

Management

1. Dry heat treatment of suckers at 400 C for 1 day.

2. Avoid growing cucurbits as intercrop.

3.Vector control with Methyl demeton or dimethoate or Dimethoate @ 2 ml/l at 3 – 4 weeks interval
Moko disease or Bacterial wilt

Causal agent: Ralstonia solanacearum

Symptoms

 Greyish brown bacterial ooze is seen when the pseudostem of affected plant is cut
transversely.
 A firm brown dry rot is found within fruits of infected plants.
 Death of whole plant occurs under severe infection.

Management

1. Disinfestation of tools with formaldehyde diluted with water in 1:3 ratio.

2. Crop rotation (3 years rotation with sugarcane or rice) & providing good drainage.

3.Drenching soil in infected pockets with bleaching powder solution (1.5%) and Bordeaux mixture 1%
+ streptocycline (0.02%).