Control of spike disease of sandal

Abstract

AbstractIn the natural sandal reserves arsenic compounds have not proved successful in erradicating the spike disease; benlate has no curative or remission effect; tetracyclines have remission effects but application is not practical in forests due to the low density of sandal per hectare and difficulty in locating diseased trees. Compounds tried by various workers have provided no cure in the field. As vegetative propagation in sandal has not been successful, heat therapy also cannot be taken up. Eucalyptus has failed to control spike. But encouraging results have been obtained in checking the incidence of spike in man made forests by soil working, use of cover crop, interplanting sandal with trees giving shade at different levels, thus reducing the loss of water by evapotranspiration. In the natural reserves where the above conditions are prevalent spike disease has not been reported for the last 80 years.