Effect of installation time and mesh size of fruit wrapping to scab symptoms on Cavendish banana

Abstract

Cavendish is a popular banana cultivar in Indonesia. The cultivation is often disturbed by pests and diseases. Nacoleia octasema is a pest that causes scab symptoms on bananas. One of the methods to prevent scab symptoms is fruit wrapping. This research aimed to study the effect of installation time and mesh size of fruit wrapping on the damage level of the N. octasema attack and determine the right combination of installation time and mesh size to prevent N. octasema attacks on Cavendish. There were nine combination treatments of the fruit wrapping. The damage level of N. octasema was obtained by calculating the fruit attacked to the total number of bananas in one bunch. The data were analyzed by ANOVA, followed by the ScootKnott Test (α=0.05) in RStudio. The lowest average damage level was found in the combination of wrapping treatments when the new banana heart appeared with ten mesh wrappers (A1B2). Meanwhile, the highest was in the combination of wrapping treatments at the first banana heart blooms with five mesh wrappers (A3B3). Results showed that 0–7 days after anthesis (A1) is the best time to wrap the fruits, while 18 mesh (B1) is the best size for fruit wrappers.