Category Archives: Banana Diseases

Anthracnose Credit: Biovision-Infonet It is an important post-harvest problem of bananas especially during transport and storage. On green fruit, pin-size brown or black sunken spots develop. Infection in young fruit is not always manifested until the fruit ripens, when black, round, slightly sunken spots appear. The centres of the spots become dark because of the […]

The cigar end rot disease (Trachysphaera fructigena) Credit: Biovision-Infonet It is a fungal disease that can attack the ripening fruit of banana, causing a dry rot of the flower end that produces an ash grey wrinkled lesion similar to the burnt end of a cigar. In storage or during transport the disease may progress to […]

Fusarium wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) (also called Panama disease) Credit: Biovision-Infonet Fusarium wilt symptoms (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense) on banana leaves. Banana cultivar ‘Bluggoe’ with yellowing symptoms on lower leaves (c) David Jones. Reproduced from the Crop Protection Compendium, 2005 Edition. (c) CAB International, Wallingford, UK, 2005. This is a soil-borne fungus that attacks the roots and blocks […]

Black leaf streak (Mycosphaerella fijiensis) (also called black Sigatoka) Credit: Biovision-Infonet It is a very serious disease that affects the leaves of banana. The spores of this fungus are carried in the wind. The spores germinate in moisture and infect the leaves. The lesions gradually grow larger and kill large areas of the leaf. This […]

Bunchy top disease Credit: Biovision-Infonet It is a virus disease transmitted by aphids (for more information on aphids click here. The typical symptoms of bunchy top of banana are very distinctive and readily distinguished from those caused by other viruses of banana. Plants can become infected at any stage of growth and there are some initial differences […]

Bacterial wilt Credit: Biovision-Infonet Initially one of the youngest three leaves turns pale-green or yellow in colour and breaks down at the petiole and the pseudostem. Later all the other leaves collapse around the pseudostem. An infected finger or fruit shows dry and rotted pulp that is coloured brown or black, and the presence of […]