Banana Panama Wilt – Kisan Suvidha

Externally, the first obvious signs of disease in most varieties are wilting and a light yellow colouring of the lower leaves, most prominent around the margins. They eventually turn a bright yellow colour with dead leaf margins.
Splitting of pseudostem base is a characteristic symptom.
Internally, symptoms first become obvious in the xylem (water conducting) vessels of the roots and the rhizome. These turn a reddish-brown to maroon colour as the fungus grows through the tissues.
When a cross-section is cut, the discolouration appears in a circular pattern around the centre of the rhizome where the infection concentrates due to the arrangement of the vessels. As symptoms progress into the pseudo-stem, continuous lines of discolouration are evident when the plant is cut longitudinally.

The casual organism is Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.cubense.
This pathogen contains colonies of white to purple pigmented mycelium. Hyphae are septate and hyaline. Conidiaphores are short and simple and having macroconidia and microconidia
Macroconidia usually produced abundantly, slightly sickle-shaped, thin-walled, with an attenuated apical cell and a foot-shaped basal cell. They are three to 5-septate measuring 23-54 x 3-4.5 µm.
Microconidia are abundant, mostly non-septate, ellipsoidal to cylindrical, slightly curved or straight, 5-12 x 2.3-3.5 µm occurring in false heads from short monophialides.
The disease is soil borne and the fungus enters the roots through the fine laterals.
The incidence is high in acid alluvial soils.
The pathogen is easily spread by infected rhizomes or suckers, farm implements or vehicles, irrigation water.

Practice proper crop rotation with paddy/sugar cane once or twice followed by banana for 2-3 cycles
Plant wilt resistant cultivars such as Poovan and Nendran in endemic areas
Proper care should be given when planting susceptible cultivators such Rasthali, Monthan, Karpuravalli, Kadali, Pachanadan by selecting healthy suckers from disease fields
Remove and destroy infested plant material after harvest
When only 1-3 plants are infected, kill and chop up the diseased plants and stew all the material in water at a temperature of at least 70 deg C for 30 minutes.
Grow healthy plants with proper fertilisation, irrigation, weed control
Provide good drainage especially during rainy season
Soil application of rice chaffy grain or dried banana leaf formulation or well-decomposed compost around the plants

Machinery and equipment should be treated with a sanitary solution such as Farmcleanse®
Footwear, which may have contacted banana plants or soil around banana plants elsewhere, should not be worn on the farm.
Provide mechanical barriers in and around the infected plants

Application Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 2.5kg/ha bactericide can also be applied along with farmyard manure and neem cake.
About 60 mg of Pseudomonas fluorescens (in a capsule) can be applied in a 10 cm deep hole made in the corm.
Application of bio control agents like Trichoderma viride @ 25 g for 4 times once at the time of planting in the planting pit and remaining doses at third, fifth and seventh month after planting
Application of T.harzianum Th-10, as dried banana leaf formulation @ 10g/plant in basal + top dressing on 2,4, and 6 months after planting

Chemical method

Application of 2 per cent of Carbendazim as injection of Carbendazim 50 ml capsule application
Paring (pralinge removal of roots and outer skin of corm) and dipping of the suckers in clay slurry and sprinkled with Carbofuran granules at 40g/corm
Soil drenching of Carbendazim 0.2 per cent solution alternated with Propiconozole 0.1% around the pseudostem at bi-monthly intervals starting from five months after planting
Application of urea + sugarcane trash (250g/pit) followed by lime (1Kg/pit) and neem cake (1-2Kg/pit)
Application of neem cake @ 250 Kg/ha was most effective in controlling Fusarium wilt in Rasthali cultivar.

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