Abstract
Basal stem rot caused by Ganoderma boninense constitutes a serious threat to oil palm industry in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia and in Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands. It is also expanding in some oil palm growing countries in Latin America and Africa and will soon become a worldwide concern to oil palm cultivation. To date, none of the various control measures developed and tested to control the disease since many decade gives entire satisfaction. An experiment was carried out to see whether incorporation of micronutrients, Copper (Cu), Boron (B) and Manganese (Mn) could reduce the incidence and severity of this disease on oil palm seedlings inoculated with G. boninense. The concentrations tested were 2 mg B/kg of soil, 2 mg Cu/kg of soil and 2 mg Mn/kg of soil incorporated into the basic fertilizer NPKMg 14-10-10-2. Treatments were applied in solution for three months before inoculation, followed by soil application for eight months after inoculation. The results showed that although no significant difference was detected among treatments, the double combinations of these micronutrients, B+Cu, B+Mn and Cu+Mn, performed better than the single nutrients in reducing the incidence and the severity of BSR, while their triple combination rather increased these pathological parameters. These double combinations could therefore be field-tested for their further integration in oil palm fertilization programme.
Highlights
Ganoderma Basal Stem Rot (BSR) is the most devastating disease of oil palm (Ariffin et al, 2000; Idris, 2009; Susanto, 2009) and constitutes a permanent threat to oil palm in Southeast Asia (Pilotti, 2005; Utomo et al, 2005)
An experiment was carried out to see whether incorporation of micronutrients, Copper (Cu), Boron (B) and Manganese (Mn) could reduce the incidence and severity of this disease on oil palm seedlings inoculated with G. boninense
Considered a disease of old palms and concentrated in coastal areas on peat soils (Singh, 1991), the BSR disease is infecting oil palm at all ages starting from the first year of field planting
Summary
Ganoderma Basal Stem Rot (BSR) is the most devastating disease of oil palm (Ariffin et al, 2000; Idris, 2009; Susanto, 2009) and constitutes a permanent threat to oil palm in Southeast Asia (Pilotti, 2005; Utomo et al, 2005). Serious yield reductions and death of palms due to Ganoderma attacks have been recorded especially in replanted areas, where the disease was endemic in the previous generation. Considered a disease of old palms and concentrated in coastal areas on peat soils (Singh, 1991), the BSR disease is infecting oil palm at all ages starting from the first year of field planting. It has spread rapidly to cover all oil palm cultivating areas and all types of soils (Idris, 1999; Khairudin and Tey, 2008), thereby becoming a great concern in Malaysia and all over the world (Turner and Gillbanks, 2003). In Cameroon, losses as high as 53.2% of dead palms over 25 years old in a first generation plantation was estimated, mainly due to Ganoderma (Tengoua and Bakoume, 2005), while, 6.4% palm death was recorded in a 10-year-old replanting when palms were at their peak production age (Tengoua, 2005)
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