Treatment methods for banana yellow leaf disease and medication for sucker handling
Banana yellow leaf disease is very difficult to cure. To confront yellow leaf disease head-on, there are only two paths: prevention and control. In areas where it has not yet broken out, prevention of infection must be strong; in areas where it has already broken out, efforts should be made to reduce damage and prevent the epidemic from spreading.
Banana farmers are encouraged to establish isolation zones on their farms to avoid the movement of pathogens between planting materials and contaminated soil and water. To prevent TR4 from spreading with people and vehicles, washing and disinfection areas for people and vehicles have also been set up around the banana plantations. Drenching the roots once every 15-20 days with an 800-fold aqueous solution of Bacillus subtilis wettable powder, and injecting the stem once with a 500-fold aqueous solution of 50% carbendazim wettable powder, can significantly reduce disease incidence.
For areas that are already infected, the solution for coexisting with the pathogen and continuing to produce bananas is to switch to varieties that are resistant to TR4. In addition, rotating bananas with non-host plants of yellow leaf disease is also considered an effective way to reduce disease incidence. At present, some countries have adopted rotation of sugarcane, rice, and cassava with bananas, while research in China has pointed out that rotating Chinese chives with bananas effectively reduces the incidence of TR4.
If you cut the stem of a banana affected by yellow leaf disease lengthwise, you can find that, unlike the off-white color of the vascular bundles in a generally healthy banana, the vascular bundles of diseased plants appear yellow to brown.
In severely affected banana yellow leaf disease orchards in the Pingtung area, use large amounts of thoroughly decomposed miscellaneous organic fertilizer (1,500-2,000 kg per fen), mix it fully with the soil before planting, and keep the soil moist; after cultivating beneficial soil microorganisms for 7-10 days, plant the banana suckers, and usually use fully fermented. Many institutions are also actively holding workshops on yellow leaf disease to build awareness of TR4 among people working with bananas.