How to prevent and control banana bunchy top disease? A detailed explanation of the latest prevention and control methods
Bananas grow in tropical regions, and during the growing period it is often hot and humid, so many diseases occur. Because pathogens like this kind of living environment, among the many diseases, what fruit growers fear most is bunchy top disease, because this disease is called banana's incurable disease. One can imagine how serious the damage this disease can cause to bananas. Today I will introduce this disease to everyone, so that if you encounter this situation you will be able to deal with it.
1. Causes of the disease
This disease is caused by infection with banana bunchy top virus, mainly because piercing-sucking pests such as aphids spread the virus. Soil and farming operations do not carry the virus. A species of aphid, the banana aphid, is the main transmission agent. After an aphid feeds on a diseased plant, the virus can survive for about 13 hours, and at this time if it pierces and sucks on a healthy plant, it can still cause infection. After infection, it remains parasitic in the plant body.
2. Symptoms of the disease
At the initial stage just after onset, it manifests as leaves that are hard and brittle, easy to break, upright and narrow and long, with the main vein and petiole of uneven length, and green veins begin to appear, a kind of green stripe. If infected after heading, it manifests as normal leaves, but the petiole is thin and curved, and flower buds do not emerge or are difficult to emerge, affecting banana setting, with few or no bananas set, and the fruit is very small, crisp, and without fragrance.
3. Prevention and control methods
1. Seed selection and seedling raising
Choose and buy disease-free seedlings, and do quarantine work well when purchasing; buy and plant only after passing quarantine: or select and cultivate virus-free, disease-free seedlings yourself.
2. Dig out diseased plants and prevent aphids
Once a diseased plant is found and you are not sure you can cure it, quickly dig out the diseased plant and take it out of the plantation to burn; or inject 10-15 ml of glyphosate stock solution or a liquid prepared at 80% to kill the infected banana plant, dig out the plant, and also dig out all the soil under the diseased plant, spread quicklime for disinfection, expose it to the sun for one month, then replace it with clean soil. Replace with clean, disease-free soil. In order to control the spread of the disease, at the initial stage you can use 10% imidacloprid wettable powder or 3% acetamiprid emulsifiable concentrate 800-1000 times liquid spray to control aphids, preventing aphids from further transmitting the virus.
3. Spraying
At the initial stage of disease onset, use Shudingzhi added with white vinegar to dissolve and dilute with water 1000 times, 300 grams of liquid per plant (about half a spoon), slowly drip-irrigate from the top center downward into the banana stem for treatment. You can also add 20% Haopu aqueous solution 500 times liquid, or 3.95 Bingdubike wettable powder 600 times liquid and other antiviral agents for combined control. After about ten days it will improve. Spray once every 10 days for three or four consecutive times, safe and effective. If the outbreak is severe, it can only be dug out.
4. Control fertilizer and water
Fertilize according to the most suitable nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ratio for bananas, 1:0.22:3.28. Spray Shudingzhi once a month combined with pouring paclobutrazol at the roots to prevent disease onset. In March, apply a topdressing of compound fertilizer once combined with zinc and boron fertilizer by trench application. Apply two jin per plant. At other times, supply water and fertilizer normally to meet needs and maintain good tree vigor.
Banana bunchy top disease is the most serious disease of bananas. It is said to be an incurable disease, but at the initial stage of onset, it can still be controlled and improved. Therefore, this disease focuses on prevention, and prevention can solve most of the problems. But if aphids cause disease onset, at the initial stage you must quickly control the aphids and spray, and there will be no problem.