Abstract
Symptoms of Phytophthora seedling blight disease of cacao were found on 3 weeks old cacao seedlings at the nursery of Seed Production Division of Ghana Cocoa Board in New Tafo-Akim during routine surveys of cacao diseases in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Survey of seedlings in the nursery was conducted to determine disease incidence (DI). Heat sterilization of soil and drenching with Ridomil Gold plus 66 WP (6% metalaxyl-M and 60% copper (I) oxide) and Champion (77% cupric hydroxide) fungicides were evaluated for disease management. Symptoms of the disease started as vertical brown lesions above the cotyledon toward the top of cacao seedlings, causing the stems and leaves to wilt. Out of a total of 135,000 inspected cacao seedlings at the nursery, 2,525 (DI = 1.8%) seedlings were infected within one week of disease identification. Isolations from samples of infected tissues yielded Phytophthora palmivora. The fungicides were effective in disease control but heat sterilization of nursery soil before sowing cocoa beans was found to be the ideal control method. Key words: Seedling blight, cacao, Phytophthora palmivora, fungicides.  
Highlights
The genus Phytophthora causes more losses than any other disease of cacao (Bowers et al, 2001; Ploetz, 2016)
Symptoms of seedling blight disease were found on 3 weeks old cacao seedlings
Out of a total of 135,000 inspected cacao seedlings at the nursery, 2,525 seedlings were infected, representing 1.8% of disease incidence within one week of disease identification. This poses a threat to cacao cultivation in Ghana since almost half of the seedlings may be lost to the disease before the recommended transplanting age of 6 months
Summary
The genus Phytophthora causes more losses than any other disease of cacao (Bowers et al, 2001; Ploetz, 2016). Losses due to Phytophthora pod rot was estimated at 700,000 metric tons in 2012 (Ploetz, 2016). Phytophthora causes seedling blight (Guest, 2007) and the disease can cause 100% loss if not controlled (Peter and Chandramohanan, 2014). Seedling blight caused by P. palmivora results in wilting of stems and leaves, defoliation and eventual death within seven days after infection (Nur’Aini et al, 2016).
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