Bunch management of banana to control blood disease

Abstract

Blood disease is a very destructive bacterial wilt of banana in Indonesia, caused by the blood disease bacterium (BDB), a pathogen that can survive in soil and is known to be transmitted by insects and human activities. A field trial was conducted to investigate blood disease development in both cv. Kepok Kuning (ABB genome, Saba sub group) subjected to different bunch management techniques and in the closely related cv. Kepok Tanjung which does not produce a male inflorescence or bud. Disease free suckers were planted in BDB infested soil and blood disease endemic area, disease distribution and agronomic characters of the plant were recorded. Kepok Tanjung remained completely disease free throughout the experiment and infection only occurred during the generative phase of growth of cv. Kepok Kuning. In cv. Kepok Kuning, both bagging and debudding significantly (at P < 0.05) reduced disease incidence. Bagging alone reduced disease incidence by over 49 % compared to the untreated control. The effect of debudding, with or without bagging, was significantly (at P < 0.05) greater, reducing disease incidence in the debudding treatment by 86 % which was not significantly (at P < 0.05) different from the advantage obtained by bagging plus debudding, which was a 94.3 % reduction compared to the untreated control.